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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25143352">Danganronpa Does Speed Dating</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gars/pseuds/Gars'>Gars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Break some ships?, Go by first names, I forgot some relationship tags, Killing Game Was A Virtual Reality Simulation (Dangan Ronpa), Make some ships?, but almost everyone is friendly</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:28:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>41,982</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25143352</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gars/pseuds/Gars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Monokuma provides an opportunity where half of the three classes will engage in speed dating, where twelve boys and twelve girls will spend about fifteen minutes each talking to one another.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akamatsu Kaede &amp; Maizono Sayaka &amp; Mioda Ibuki, Akamatsu Kaede/Saihara Shuichi, Amami Rantaro &amp; Hoshi Ryoma, Asahina Aoi &amp; Ogami Sakura, Celestia Ludenberg &amp; Yamada Hifumi, Chabashira Tenko &amp; Yonaga Angie &amp; Yumeno Himiko, Fujisaki Chihiro &amp; Ishimaru Kiyotaka &amp; Owada Mondo, Gokuhara Gonta &amp; Shirogane Tsumugi, Hanamura Teruteru/Iruma Miu, Hinata Hajime &amp; Kuzuryu Fuyuhiko &amp; Soda Kazuichi, Hinata Hajime/Nanami Chiaki, Kirigiri Kyoko/Naegi Makoto, Koizumi Mahiru &amp; Mioda Ibuki &amp; Saionji Hiyoko &amp; Tsumiki Mikan, Kuzuryu Fuyuhiko/Pekoyama Peko, Mioda Ibuki/Ultimate Imposter, Momota Kaito &amp; Saihara Shuichi, Nidai Nekomaru/Owari Akane, Sonia Nevermind/Tanaka Gundham</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Monday</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone and welcome to this non-despair AU. The killing games exist, but in a simulator that the classes sometimes use. Their memories are affected for the game, but they remember everything afterwards. Sometimes the games alters their personalities, like making Junko crazy or Kirumi the prime minister. Most of/all of the extremes don't exist outside of the killing games. Kirumi has never been the prime minister.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Monday 3:00 pm</p><p>“Phuhuhuhuhu!”</p><p>Despite being in many different locations doing many different activities class 77, 78 and 79 all shared a collective shudder.</p><p>“Ugh, what does he want now?” Maki sighed</p><p>The announcement blared “Classes 77, 78 and 79 please come to the gym for another school spirit opportunity.”</p><p>-----</p><p>The forty eight ultimates made their way to the gym at different speeds and attitudes, but soon enough they all were in attendance.</p><p>“Monokuma, I was going to take such a great nap, why are we here?” Leon asked.</p><p>Miu gave the bear a thumbs down, “Seriously! This golden hair girl genius has more important things to do!”</p><p>“Just let him talk so we can get out of here.” Kyoko asserted.</p><p>The bear grinned “As usual one of our resident detectives gets right to the point, one has to wonder if anything would go unnoticed if the two detectives ever started going out with each other.”</p><p>Kyoko gave Monokuma a deadpan stare that betrayed no emotion while Makoto laughed nervously next to her. Shuichi on the other hand spluttered after the statement and turned beet red as Kaede tightened her grip on his hand.</p><p>“Oh my gosh, they totally should!” Kokichi cheered as stars shined in his eyes, “But that’s a lie, I’m sure Kaede and Makoto wouldn’t be too happy about that.”</p><p>Hajime gave the bear an exasperated look, “Are we here so you can tell us who you want to ship us with or-”</p><p>“Excellent question!” The bear pirouetted in excitement, “From our token reserve student no less! As you know this month is school spirit month and it has been decided that you all will have the opportunity this week to engage in a great opportunity for school spirit. An annual tradition.”</p><p>Yasuhiro cocked his head “Wait, if it’s annual why is this the first time-”</p><p>“As I was saying” Monokuma continued, “Do you know what’s wrong with you kids these days?”</p><p>“Oh boy, here we go.” Fuyuhiko muttered under his breath to Peko</p><p>“What was that?” Mokokuma asked, staring at the Yakuza for a second before continuing, “Cliques, cliques, cliques. You’re ultimates recruited from all over Japan and” gesturing towards Sonia and Angie, “The world. And yet despite this most of you can’t even engage in stimulating conversation with more than three of your classmates. Do you think in the wild I had the choice of having a clique with only three of my friends. No! I chatted up any salmon that I could knowing that time is precious! After all that is how my-”</p><p>“We get it!” Kaito groaned.</p><p>Monokuma pointed his paw at him, “Personally I blame your smartphones, no attention spans to even listen to your elders.”</p><p>“He is right! It is most important that we are able to maintain focus!” Taka asserted.</p><p>“So that’s why you’re going to have us do a mixer?” Junko asked with an air of boredom, wanting to move this along.</p><p>“Nothing gets by you, Kyoko and Shuichi better watch their job security.”</p><p>“A mixer? How pointless” The affluent prodigy smirked.</p><p>“Now now, don’t look a gift bear in the mouth.” Monokuma retorted, “Junko, unsurprisingly as I hear no one will play any trivia games with her anymore, is correct. We’re having a mixer, specifically speed dating.”</p><p>“Speed dating?” Most of the students had a look of surprise or unpleasant surprise while a notable few had a look of excitement.</p><p>“That’s right! All the ultimates in one place think of all the shipping possibilities! I’ve been to the internet and trust me, every single one exists somewhere. Some people even think some of you” He gestured towards Tenko “Even swing in the opposite direction that you are obviously oriented to.”</p><p>Teruteru tapped his fingers together not wanting to offend some of his classmates, “That material seems interesting you wouldn’t happen to have-”</p><p>“All in due time.” Monokuma replied, “This Friday night we will have a speed dating night, first come first serve. We have twelve spots for girls and twelve spots for boys and of course if you identify as not binary feel free to take either spot or talk to me in private. We all remember the class 72 lawsuit.”</p><p>Nekomaru stroked his chin, “Isn’t making high school students speed date kind of unethical?”</p><p>Monokuma held up a bunch of papers, “Remember those huge packets that we had you sign, well that includes your John Hancocks agreeing to participate in such activities, besides not all of you will have to do it.”</p><p>Makoto raised his hand “So we’re having going to have a speed dating event because the internet-”</p><p>“We’re having a speed dating event to get all of you out of your clique shells. Friendship, romance, even building connections for your eventual social media Linkedin profiles. I don’t care, but I want ultimates interacting with others they usually don’t interact with. Most of your cliques are of the same gender anyways so what better way to meet people.”</p><p>“But that gives degenerate males an opportunity to try to corrupt us girls.” Tenko protested.</p><p>“Then don’t go! However if the 24 spots don’t fill up on their own we will have a lottery with the results sent to your e-handbooks.”</p><p>Monokuma waved his paw towards the two tables in front of the gym, one with a pink backdrop and one with a blue backdrop. “Did you know that pink used to be the color associated with boys and blue with girls? Well as usual times change! Boys please sign up at the blue table, girls at the pink table.” The bear gave a salute, “Monokuma out!” and disappeared.</p><p>There was a collective pause as the students all took in the fact that the lecture was over and then began to discuss amongst themselves whether they wanted to sign up or not.</p><p>-----</p><p>A few students made their way to the front almost immediately. While a couple others left immediately.</p><p>“Well this has been a waste of time.” Byakuya remarked, “But I shouldn’t have expected anything less from that bear.”</p><p>Toko followed him about fifteen feet back. “If my white knight isn’t interested, then neither am I.” She muttered.</p><p>-----</p><p>Fuyuhiko and Peko glanced at each other, smiled and made their way out of the gym.</p><p>-----</p><p>Teruteru signed his name to the list. “Getting a chance to sit across and enjoy the company of 12 of these fine ladies,” his nose started to bleed, “I should start thinking of what dishes to bring to share with them.”</p><p>Miu made her way to the front grabbing Keebo as she went, “Come on Keebo! It’s time to give these virgins a chance at what they’ve been begging for almost all year.”</p><p>“But why do I need to go?” The robot whined.</p><p>“To get an opportunity to date and have another human experience! Duh.”</p><p>“Nishishi” Kokichi snickered, “Can Keebo even date? What happens if he takes a girl home.”</p><p>Keebo pointed at Kokichi with a glare, “That is robophobic, I can engage in any activity-”</p><p>Teruteru turned around after signing and gave him a look, “Any activity?”</p><p>Keebo gave a smile as he put his hands on his hips with what looked like almost a superhero pose, “I have been built with countless functions and can converse and interact-”</p><p>“Out of the way Keebo.” Leon laughed “As he went up to the list and signed his name. I can’t wait to have a chance to hang out and talk with all the cute girls. See you all later.” As he left the gym.</p><p>Miu had finished signing the paper as she gestured for Keebo to sign.</p><p>“Uh Miu, which side should I sign?” The robot asked nervously</p><p>“Obviously the boys side, how else are you going to get a chance to spend time with me!”</p><p>“Oh, alright.” Keebo signed the boys' side of the paper as well.</p><p>The two made their way out of the gym as Miu and Teruteru started talking as to who else they thought would sign up.</p><p>“Come on Muku” Junko grabbed Mukuro’s arm as she dragged her to the sign up sheet.</p><p>“Junko” Mukuro started with a bead of sweat running down her face, “I, I don’t know about this.”</p><p>“Oh stop being such a spoilsport sis, we’re going to sign up and sit next to each other. It will be fine. Besides how else are you going to get over Makoto!”</p><p>Mukuro shifted to a horrified expression, “Junko! Stop being so loud!” She hissed.</p><p>“Whatever sis” Junko started pawing her clothes, “Where’s my pen? Muku you sign up first.”</p><p>“Junko I think there are pens on the table.”</p><p>“No, I need to use my pen, as a fashionista I don’t want to be seen with such inferior pens.”</p><p>Mukuro rolled her eyes as she signed the list, “Did you find your pen?”</p><p>Junko’s expression turned to a grin, “You know it’s the strangest thing, I think I must have left it in the dorms, I guess we better go get it.”</p><p>Mukuro’s expression switched to frustration and surprise, “But, by the time we get back the list-”</p><p>“Can it sis! We accomplished what we came here for.” As Junko grabbed Mukuro’s arm and started to leave the gym, “We’re going to get you all dolled up before this Friday.”</p><p>Korekiyo quietly made his way to the front. “Oh humanity and a chance to observe and partake in such a ritual.” He hugged himself smiling towards the sky that Atua may or may not be presiding in. He quietly signed the paper and made his way towards the exit.</p><p>Many of the other students were discussing what they wanted to do.</p><p>-----</p><p>“Hey Makiroll what do you think of-”</p><p>“No”</p><p>“But it would be a chance-”</p><p>“No”</p><p>Kaito glanced at her, “Are you worried about our relationship? I just think it would be nice for you to meet more people.”</p><p>She glared back at him, “No means no Kaito or were you sleeping through our dating ethics class?” With that she turned and walked out of the gym.</p><p>Kaito sighed, “Well I’ll see you later.” he remarked to Kaede and Shuichi as he followed her.</p><p>-----</p><p>“I should sign up! I’ll take them all down!” Akane declared to Nekomaru as she was starting to get pumped up.</p><p>Nekomaru was cleaning out his ear with his pinky, “Akane, you need to focus more. It’s not a competition. It’s speed dating.”</p><p>She smiled, “Yeah anything with speed in its name has got to be a competition.”</p><p>Nekomaru sighed, “You’re going to be disappointed, it’s going to be a bunch of talking with no fighting or sparring at all.”</p><p>Akane reacted with surprise, “That sounds really boring.”</p><p>Nekomaru, “It will give you a chance to meet people and who knows maybe find a guy that you like.”</p><p>Akane looked around, “Can any of them” she lowered her voice, “Do it as well as you can?”</p><p>Nekomaru looked around, sized up Gonta before deciding he was too gentle to use the necessary force Akane wanted. (For a massage of course) “I don’t think so.”</p><p>“Well screw that noise.” The gymnast said. She punched the manager lightly on the arm. “Come on let’s go fight.”</p><p>-----</p><p>“So….” The luckster awkwardly started the conversation towards Kyoko, “Any thoughts on this?”</p><p>Kyoko smiled, “I can understand why this would be odd for you the idea of talking to twelve people of the opposite sex in a one on one situation is a little daunting. That being said I think it will be more beneficial for our other classmates.” She blushed as she took his hand, “I’m perfectly happy in my relationship with you.”</p><p>Makoto let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, “I feel the same way!” he beamed.</p><p>The two made their way out of the gym.</p><p>-----</p><p>
  <em> A lot of my classmates are really hot. Both the guys and girls. </em>
</p><p>Kaede looked around the room. It wasn’t fair, stereotypically it was much more acceptable for boys to be thirsty. It wasn’t her fault her hormones helped her find almost everyone in the room to be attractive.</p><p>Shuichi nervously glanced at her. “Uhhh Kaede, you seem torn about this.”</p><p>The pianist refocused her attention on the detective. “Oh Shuichi, ummm, no I…..we don’t need to do this….unless they need people.”</p><p>Shuichi looked a little bit more relieved, he knew Kaede liked people and in turn it made it easier for her to like people. “I don’t want to be holding you back.”</p><p>Kaede gave him a stern glare before ruffling his hair, “You don’t ever hold me back Shuichi. Come on let’s go watch a movie and snuggle.”</p><p>The detective smiled, “Uh, okay, if that’s what you want.”</p><p>The two made their way out of the gym.</p><p>-----</p><p>“Uhhh Chiaki?” Hajime asked to the girl sleeping on his shoulder</p><p>“Oh Hajime” She yawned, “What did Monokuma want?”</p><p>“He offered us a chance to engage in speed dating.”</p><p>Chaiki sleepily pointed to him, “Did you know that in this past century that one of the platforms that has gained a lot of popularity are dating sims. Most of the games are pretty formulaic with kindness and consistent behavior typically being solid strategies.”</p><p>Hajime gave her a half-smile, “Ummm I wasn’t familiar with that…”</p><p>“Do you want me to show you a couple of the games, not that you need it since you’re doing just fine in our relationship….I think.”</p><p><em> Well that’s reassuring. </em> He took a glance at the tables, “Sure, let’s go.”</p><p>The two left the gym.</p><p>Seeing his favorite person leave Nagito hugged himself, “I know no one would want to talk to worthless trash like me. If I am lucky then the list can fill up so no one has to deal with me.” He left the gym too.</p><p>-----</p><p>“So you’re saying this will give Gonta a good chance to be gentleman?”</p><p>Tsumugi smiled at the gentle giant, “Oh Gonta this will be great! You can practice being really nice and considerate and get a chance to get to know women better.”</p><p>Gonta smiled, “That sounds great to Gonta, but Gonta isn’t sure he will know the best things to say or how to dress.”</p><p>The cosplayer’s eyes lit up. “I can find a great outfit for you and we can practice conversations.”</p><p>Gonta gave her a hug, “Tsumugi is so nice to Gonta.” He went up to the sign up sheet and wrote his name and returned, “Will Tsumugi also sign up.”</p><p>She sighed, “Well it’s plain to see that I don’t have the best conversational tools, but if no one else does….I don’t mind if I am signed up randomly.”</p><p>Gonta smiled, “Gonta is excited to share even more conversations with you, if you do.”</p><p>“Come on Gonta, let’s go get you an outfit picked up from my costumes. When we’re done I can sign up if it’s needed.”</p><p>The two made their way out</p><p>-----</p><p>“I don’t know guys, I, I think it’s asking a lot.”</p><p>“Look Chihiro, this is a man's promise. We’ll all do this together and afterwards we can hang out and grab some pizza. This is a chance for you to show how strong you’ve become.”</p><p>“Yes! Sanctioned school dating is a perfectly acceptable way to spend time with classmates, build strong relationships socially or potentially for occupational opportunities! Aside from the pizza as I would recommend a middle eastern place to get whole wheat bread, hummus and salad high in nutritional quality I completely agree!”</p><p>The programmer shook a little, “But to talk to girls one on one and I’ll need to know what to say-”</p><p>Mondo smiled at him and gave a thumbs up, “We have this week to get ready.”</p><p>Taka stood smartly, “Yes! I am going to go write up a list of questions and can share my papers with you if you want!”</p><p>Chihiro didn’t feel too confident, but maybe he could ask Sakura and Hina for pointers. They were always nice to him. “Well, if you guys say so.”</p><p>The three made their way to the front and signed their names.</p><p>-----</p><p>“Big sis Mahiru are you really considering this? You and I can go to a dance show or something instead” Hiyoko whined.</p><p>“But this is a chance to see if any of the boys are,” Ibuki smiled, “reliable.”</p><p>“I-it wou-would probably be nice to have a nice night meeting more o-of the b-boys” Mikan added</p><p>“Shut up p-Mikan!” Hiyoko snapped</p><p>“Eeeeeeee” The nurse whined</p><p>Mahiru sighed, her chance with Hajime sailed as he clearly was in a relationship with Chiaki.</p><p>“Come on Mahiru!” Hiyoko hugged the taller (relatively) girl.</p><p>Mahiru blushed a little, “If there is a boy who is reliable or a gentleman that would be nice.”</p><p>Hiyoko frowned, “But Mahiru we can have fun instead.”</p><p>Ibuki smiled at Hiyoko, “Now now Hiyoko, Mahiru is like a Kinsey 1 or 1.5, while you’re more of a 5 or 6.”</p><p>Hiyoko frowned, but didn’t disagree with her.</p><p>“Come on Mikan” Ibuki hooted as she dragged the nurse to the front and the two signed up and returned.</p><p>“Mahiru?”</p><p>“I’m thinking about it,” she said.</p><p>-----</p><p>“What is it that you’re pondering my dark queen? Does this deal with the monochrome one transfix you?”</p><p>Sonia sighed as she held the breeder’s hands, “Gundham, I am quite happy in our relationship, but I also have never done this before.” Her eyes sparkled, “As royalty I have never been able to engage in ‘speed dating’ and I think this could be a most exciting experience.</p><p>The breeder’s breath hitched in hearing that.</p><p>Perceptively Sonia smiled at him, “But I wouldn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable either.”</p><p>Gundham nodded, “I am Gundham Tanaka such trivial concerns are beneath one as I.”</p><p>The princess smiled, “I just want to make sure you don’t feel threatened or anything.”</p><p>-----</p><p>Kokichi had strategically waited as he saw the names filling up on the list. “Perfect he muttered to himself, time to start pranking people starting with….I don’t know….Keebo.” The prankster laughed to himself and made his way out of the gym. “So much to do, so little time. I should go find Monokuma.”</p><p>-----</p><p>“Are you thinking of signing up?” Ryoma asked Rantaro as the two watched the other classmates talking.</p><p>Rantaro held his hands out in a shrug, “I think I would enjoy myself if I went. What about you?”</p><p>Ryoma pulled his beany towards his head and looked down, “I don’t think I would be much of an enjoyment if I went.”</p><p>The taller boy looked at the other with concern, “Hey, we’ve talked about this. Are you still seeing that therapist?”</p><p>“Yeah, she has me tracking my thoughts and trying to reframe them, using this thing called CBT.” The short boy sighed, “I don’t know how effective it is.”</p><p>“Tell you what.” Rantaro said “Let’s just have a dude’s night out. I’d rather hang out with you than do some speed dating activity.”</p><p>Ryoma gave a small smile, “I’m lucky to have you as a friend.”</p><p>Rantaro shrugged, “How about this? We wait and see if the list fills up or not. If it does we have a dude’s night out. We can invite some of the guys who already left. And if not we’ll do the speed dating thing and hang out afterwards.”</p><p>Ryoma nodded, “Sounds fair to me.”</p><p>-----</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>Kazuichi pulled his phone out of his pocket.</p><p>
  <span class="u">Stop being a pussy and go sign up</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">How else do you expect to get over Sonia</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">Then come on by Peko and I want to help spiff you up for this</span>
</p><p>Soda looked at the phone for a while. “I guess having a close friend being a Yakuza has its advantages.” He looked at Sonia holding Gundham’s hands. Alright, It’s time to move on.</p><p>Kazuichi spent a few minutes psyching himself up and then he made his way to the list and signed his name.</p><p>-----</p><p>Sayaka looked at the list. She had known Makoto since junior high and yet he still ended up with Kyoko. Alright, I’ve handled things way harder than this and it will give me something else to think about. Plus a good amount of the guys are cute.</p><p>She signed her name on the list before making her way out of the gym.</p><p>-----</p><p>“Hina?”</p><p>“Oh sorry Sakura. I’m not sure what to do.”</p><p>“You’ve been staring at the list for about five minutes. Feeling nervous.”</p><p>“Well, I’ve never been good at dating or talking to boys. You’ve had a boyfriend so you know what you’re doing.”</p><p>Sakura smiled at her petite friend, “Even though I have had a boyfriend, dating is always a challenge.”</p><p>Hina bit her lip, “It would be nice to meet someone who is really nice.”</p><p>Sakura nodded, “I think this would be a good opportunity for you.”</p><p>“Can you do it as well?”</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>The two girls signed their names up.</p><p>-----</p><p>Kirumi walked up to the front and examined the lists. She had kept tabs on who had left the gym and who seemed like they didn’t want to sign up. “It appears that I can best serve by signing up so that way, no one has to partake who doesn’t want to.” She signed her name on the list before leaving.</p><p>-----</p><p>The Imposter watched as his classmates deliberated, some signing up more quickly than others. “I think it will be best if I refine my talent, but if I can observe instead.” He quipped to himself.</p><p>He walked out of the gym, “Monokuma?”</p><p>“You rang?”</p><p>The Imposter inquired, “Will there be catering at this event?”</p><p>“But of course, all you can eat salmon.”</p><p>The Imposter rolled his eyes, “Do you need any help catering?”</p><p>Monokuma held his paw to his chin, “Well Teruteru and Kirumi both signed up so yes I think that would be most helpful.”</p><p>“I would like to volunteer then contingent that I am allowed to also help myself to as much food as I want.”</p><p>“Sounds good to me.”</p><p>“Did you say free food?!”</p><p>“Did you say you need help with catering?!”</p><p>Yasuhiro and Kokichi both asked the bear. Monokuma looked at the time and gave Kokichi a grin, “Yes in fact I could use one more catering.”</p><p>The boy snicked, “I will be there with bells on.”</p><p>Monokuma turned to Yasuhiro, “Sorry food is only for caterers and speed daters and we’re all full on caterers.”</p><p>Yasuhiro turned, beelined back into the gym and signed his name.</p><p>“So predictable” The Imposter sighed.</p><p>Monokuma nodded “He really is.”</p><p>-----</p><p>“Himiko! For the 37th time! I don’t think you need to do this!” Tenko implored the red head, “You’re just going to be exposing yourself to a bunch of degenerates.”</p><p>“But Himiko,” Angie bobbed her head, “This can give you a chance to meet a special someone.”</p><p>“Nyeh” the mage groaned, “It sounds like such a pain.”</p><p>Tenko held up her hand, “That’s right, it would be a total pain and not worth doing!”</p><p>“Atua says that it is a great opportunity.” Angie remarked. She quickly went to the front and signed her name before returning. “Ohhh Himiko there are spots still available.”</p><p>“Himiko come hang out with me instead and we can try sparring or something,” Tenko smiled.</p><p>“Both sound like pains.” complained Himiko.</p><p>-----</p><p>As Kazuichi made his way to the exit he was stopped, “Kazuichi?”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>Mahiru excused herself from the group and made her way over, “Did you sign up?”</p><p>He rubbed the back of his head, “Well, I, yeah, I did.”</p><p>She frowned, “I didn’t take you for wanting to frivolously date like that.”</p><p>He held up his hands, “Whoa whoa it isn’t like that. It’s just” He sighed, “It would be nice to get a chance to get to know you all better and not just think about…..” he gestured towards Sonia “Everyone has been saying I need to move on, you know.”</p><p>Mahiru’s expression softened, “I didn’t realize that was why…..I mean comments about seeing Sonia in a bikini and other unreliable things…..”</p><p>Kazuichi smiled, “Yeah….I haven’t been the most reliable have I? But it’s alright, Fuyuhiko said he and Peko are going to help me be more.” He smiled at her “Reliable I guess. Anyways see you around Mahiru.” He waved and walked out.</p><p>
  <em>Well if it can help him get over Sonia.</em>
</p><p>“Mahiru why were you talking to him?” Hiyoko asked.</p><p>Mahiru took a breath. “One second Hiyoko.” She walked over to the list and signed her name.</p><p>-----</p><p>“Your tea making continues to serve you well Hifumi.” Celeste sipped her tea, “You might move up a rank if this continues.”</p><p>“Thank you” Hifumi bowed. He looked at the list, “Any thoughts on that?”</p><p>Celeste played with her hair with her offhand, “No, I am not interested. I doubt any boy here can top the C rank.” she smiled, “But I thank you for the tea, I had no interest in moving prior to that.” She looked at him as the headmaster had recently told her she needed to inquire of others more. “Will you sign up?”</p><p>Hifumi stood tall and smiled, “Of course not, I have more important things to do.”</p><p>The two made their way out of the gym.</p><p>-----</p><p>“This is getting kind of boring, shall we go?” Rantaro motioned to Ryoma.</p><p>“Yeah, let’s blow this popsicle stand.”</p><p>The two made their way to the exit when Monokuma appeared right in front of them.</p><p>“Hold it! Attention everyone” He called to the remaining students. “As you can see. These two were about to exit and cause there to be too many boys not signing up on the list.”</p><p>“Typical degenerates shirking responsibility!” Tenko declared.</p><p>Himiko glanced at her “But Tenko you said-”</p><p>“Anyways” Monokuma continued, “now we move to the lottery phase for those of you in here.”</p><p>“What about those of us who have already signed up?” Mahiru asked.</p><p>“Oh you all are still set to be on there.” Monokuma answered with one exception. He pointed at Yasuhiro.</p><p>“What?” The Clairvoyant asked, “Why me?”</p><p>“As someone who signed up when he heard free food, your spot is not nearly as important as the others.” He ignored Yasuhiro’s protests, “so without further ado” He tossed out Monokuma themed playing cards to Sonia, Gundham, Yasuhiro, Ryoma, Rantaro, Hiyoko, Himiko and Tenko.</p><p>“The first two boys and girls names that I call will be added to the list and will be expected to attend speed dating this Friday.”</p><p>“How does this work?” Yasuhiro asked</p><p>“Simple.” The bear replied. “I gave out an ace through eight with each of you having one of those cards. Now I will flip over a card, for example.” He flipped over the five of diamonds. “Who has a five?”</p><p>“That would be me, as it seems your sorcery was able to entice me.” Gundham remarked as he held up the five of spades.</p><p>“Oh Gundham! That is so exciting” Sonia beamed, “Perhaps you can find more people who want to engage in rituals with us!”</p><p>“Rituals aside, that means our resident breeder, heh breeder, will be attending our speed dating this Friday.” Monokuma continued.</p><p>Sonia finally considered the idea of Gundham talking to twelve of her female classmates and her not being there, “Ummmm Monokuma, if anyone is selected and doesn’t want to go-”</p><p>“No trades!” The bear yelled, “You had plenty of time to make up your minds, Celeste had Hifumi made her tea from scratch before even leaving the gym and you all took longer than her. Gosh, kids these days I tell you, first-”</p><p>“Can we continue?!” Hiyoko groaned as she covered her ears.</p><p>Monokuma’s red eye gleamed, “The next card is the ace! Who is our ace.”</p><p>“Awwwwww!” Hiyoko dropped her card. She pouted before recovering, “Well at least I can hang out with my friends as she hugged Mahiru and Ibuki before shooting Mikan a glare.”</p><p>“Good grief, if we have to talk to her, maybe it isn’t worth going,” Rantaro quietly mentioned to Ryoma.</p><p>“Our next card is the two.” Monokuma announced.</p><p>“Heh, about that.” Ryoma showed his two of hearts to Rantaro.</p><p>Rantaro shrugged and smiled, “Hey maybe the two of hearts means you’ll find someone.”</p><p>“I doubt it.” The tennis pro murmured.</p><p>“And last, but not least.” Monokuma paused, “Drumroll please.”</p><p>Sonia started to make a drumroll sound as everyone else gave Monokuma a blank expression or a glare, “Card number six.”</p><p>“Phew I am card number eight.” Tenko said.</p><p>Sonia frowned, “And I am card number three.”</p><p>“Which means.” Monokuma continued looking at Himiko who was doing a thousand yard stare. “Himiko come on down.”</p><p>The mage sighed, “Such a pain.”</p><p>Tenko threw her arms back in surprise, “What Himiko? It was your card?” She desperately looked at Monokuma, “You said that more students could go? I think Yasuh…..haro? Wanted to go also.”</p><p>Monokuma threw up his paws, “Tough luck, I’ve decided that 12 and 12 is the perfect format, you snooze you lose.”</p><p>“But I-”</p><p>“Who are the twelve Monokuma?” Sonia inquired</p><p>“Well now that you mentioned it.” Monokuma counted on his hands before sighing, “I miscounted. Yasuhiro you’re in.”</p><p>“Yes!’ The Clairvoyant cheered.</p><p>“Now if you don’t mind.” Monokuma continued, “it’s time to get this gym all nice and in order. Am-scray!”</p><p>The remaining students made their way out.</p><p>____________________________________________________________________________</p><p>Monday 3:11 pm</p><p>*beep*</p><p><em>What's</em><em> this?</em> Shuichi carefully pulled out his handbook as Kaede had fallen asleep on his shoulder. “Oh it’s the event, let’s see.” He read the email that Monokuma had sent.</p><p>This Friday from 5pm to 8:15pm, or maybe later depending on how the dates go ;)</p><p>Shuicuhi cringed at the winking face and allusion to sex. “Not that Miu or Teruteru would mind.”</p><p>Students who “signed up”</p><p>
  <em> “Signed up?” did something involving luck end up being used? Maybe a lottery, strange that he wouldn’t have known he was in a lottery, but if that is the case I better make sure I wasn’t selected, or Kaede for that matter. </em>
</p><p>Will be required to attend in formal attire. If one does not have formal attire please seek Monokuma where after mocking will occur, attire will be provided as needed. Food and drink will be provided. No spectators. Now without further ado, here is the guest list.</p><p><em>Monkuma attire, no way anyone was going to go for that.</em> Shuichi breathed a sigh of relief as he first read through the names so he could exclude his and Kaede’s from the list. He read through the names again.</p><p><em>Nothing too surprising though it’s strange to see Ryoma and Himiko on there.</em> He closed the message before pulling out his phone to respond to Kaito’s texts. <em>Man for being so confident Kaito sure gets worried if you don’t respond to his texts after three minutes.</em></p><p>Monday 3:13 pm</p><p>“Come on out of there Muku! You can’t hide in there until Friday!”</p><p>
  <em> That’s what you think. </em>
</p><p>Mukuro sighed. Obviously she couldn’t hide from Junko right now as they were in Junko’s dorm room with Mukuro hiding in the bathroom.</p><p>“Come on Muku! I know what foods would cause you to be in there that long and we haven’t any of those in weeks. And it’s two weeks until your time of the month.”</p><p>
  <em> Sometimes I hate having a twin…. </em>
</p><p>Mukuro glanced at the mirror in the bathroom. “Fiiiiiinnnnneeeee.” She opened the door and walked out.</p><p>Junko gave her a cute smile as she drew her hands to her chin, eyes got big and asked in a cutesy voice, “So what do you think?”</p><p>Mukuro deadpanned, “About what?”</p><p>Junko lashed at her, “The message stupid!” as she threw the handbook to Mukuro. “So which of the twelve guys do you want?”</p><p>Mukuro looked over the names, “I hardly know any of them.”</p><p>“What about Mondo? He is big and tough and could be fun to fight with.”</p><p>“I’d snap him in two in five seconds.”</p><p>“Oooohhhh how about Ishimaru, he really likes rules.”</p><p>“He seems married to a rule book and has no personality.”</p><p>“So then you two would be, like, perfect!”</p><p>“........”</p><p>Monday 3:21 pm</p><p>*knock knock*</p><p>“Come on in!”</p><p>“Uh hey guys.”</p><p>“Well look who it is!” Fuyuhiko grinned, “I see you signed up.”</p><p>Kazuichi had a sheepish look, “Well...yeah.”</p><p>“Peko didn’t think you would sign up.”</p><p>“That is not what I said.” The stoic swordsman replied</p><p>“Anyways, come on, we’re going out on the town we need to get you a tuxedo.”</p><p>“That’s….that’s really nice of you.”</p><p>“Eh don’t worry about it.” Fuyuhiko said, “Let’s give you a chance to find someone new, speaking of which….” He looked at Peko</p><p>Peko held out her handbook with the guest list, “We want you to have basic knowledge of all of the girls we find your knowledge to be…...lacking in that regard.”</p><p>Kazuichi felt defensive “Hey! I know plenty.”</p><p>“Of all of them, Mahiru is the one you are friends or closest to being friends with. Tell me about her.”</p><p>He gave a thumbs up, I’ve got this!, “Simple, she likes photography and doesn’t like unreliable men.”</p><p>“Why does she like photography and why doesn’t she like unreliable men?”</p><p>“Uhhhhhhhhh”</p><p>3:32 pm</p><p>“Maybe you can pretend to be sick!” Tenko implored Himiko.</p><p>“Oh Tenko, it was Atua’s will for Himiko to be part of this, if it wasn’t she wouldn’t have been picked.” “Come on Himiko let’s go get some clothing materials.”</p><p>“Clothing materials?”</p><p>“I am the ultimate artist, between me, Kirumi and Tsumugi we can make some clothes. We can make you a dazzling mage outfit.”</p><p>“Hmmmm.”</p><p>“Himiko you’re not going to enjoy this are you?” Tenko pleaded.</p><p>“Nyeh?”</p><p>“Hey, do you girls need a ride to the stores? We’re planning to go there right now and my car can fit five.” Rantaro asked.</p><p>“That is very nice of you Rantaro.” Angie smiled, “It is too bad you’re not going to be part of the speed dating.”</p><p>Rantaro smiled, “No problem at all right Ryoma?”</p><p>Ryoma looked at them, “Do any of you want shotgun?”</p><p>“Most certainly!” Angie said as she bobbed her head left and right.</p><p>“You degenerate just want to sit next to Himiko!”</p><p>Ryoma sighed.</p><p>3:49 pm</p><p>“I think this might work.” Sayaka mused to herself as she looked through her wardrobe. She examined the dress, it was a little revealing as it was for one of her performances. “Eh whatever, it’ll be nice to have the attention.”</p><p>*Knock knock*</p><p>Sayaka opened her door to see Hina and Sakura. “Oh hey you two.”</p><p>“Hi Sayaka” the swimmer started.</p><p>“We were wondering,” Sakura continued, “As we are both athletes we’re not the most equipped for this occasion.”</p><p>Sayaka smiled. Both of them are really nice, it’ll be nice to spend more time with them. “Sure I’d be happy to help both of you, we’ll need to go downtown though and find an outfit for each of you.” She looked up at Sakura, “We might need to see if anyone here can make any clothing adjustments for you as well.”</p><p>Sakura nodded, “I am quite used to that.”</p><p>Hina glanced at the two of them, “Should we take the bus to get there?”</p><p>Sayaka smiled, “I think I know a way we can get there.”</p><p>4:03 pm</p><p>“So as you can as I have outlined in our charts here is the breakdown of how to optimally manage our time over the next five days so we can be prepared for Friday night while attending all previous functions and improving our grades!”</p><p>“5:00 pm etiquette training? Bro, I think you’re taking this a bit far.”</p><p>“Courtship is a very important activity that requires a significant amount of study!”</p><p>“Dude, my bros and I picked up chicks all the time, this is way too much!”</p><p>“I believe without my preparation you are setting yourself up to fail!”</p><p>Chihiro could feel tears welling up in his eyes, confrontation was still so challenging for him. “Guys, can you cool it a bit.”</p><p>The two looked at him before both took a deep breath, they both had been working on not upsetting their third musketeer.</p><p>“Tell you what.” Mondo said facing Taka, “Let’s make a bet. Whoever leaves with more girls giving them their phone number is correct.”</p><p>Taka looked uncomfortable, “I do not want to think of this as a conquest.”</p><p>Mondo shook his head “Nah it’s nothing like that. It’s just a phone number for potential future dates, doesn’t mean anything else. And if I win you have to clean my motorcycle for the next two weeks, one of those you have to do outside the girl’s dorm.”</p><p>Chihiro smiled, it was always nice when the two of them were able to calm down.</p><p>Taka held his hand to his chin in thought, “I accept your challenge and if I win you have to do my laundry for the next two weeks.”</p><p>Mondo held out his hand, “Deal?”</p><p>“Deal!”</p><p>The two then parted ways as each had an idea as to how to prepare next.</p><p>Chihiro was left standing there by himself looking at both of them. “So then….what should I do? He looked one way and the other and eventually made his way after Taka.”</p><p>Monday 4:14 pm</p><p>Makoto wasn’t sure how to spend the afternoon. Kyoko had gone to the library so he started walking through the dorm as he made his way to the second story.</p><p>“Maybe I can finish that 999 game….ooofff”</p><p>Somehow his shoelace had come untied and he fell hard on to the space in front of him.</p><p>Hearing the noise someone opened the door to his dorm. “Makoto, hey man, you alright?”</p><p>Makoto looked up at Leon grinning at him. The baseball star helped him up. “Actually, you’ll do, I need a wingman.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Come on!” Leon grabbed his arm as the two made their way to Leon’s car where Sakura, Sayaka and Hina were waiting. “Alright we’re ready to go! Makoto wanted to go with us.”</p><p>“Uhhh...yeah”</p><p>All three girls greeted him with smiles as they got into Leon’s car.</p><p>Monday 4:37 pm</p><p>“Okay Gonta, after having taken your measurements I think I have found what will look good for you.”</p><p>Tsumugi pulled out a bronze and green tuxedo.</p><p>“I will need to make a few alterations, but I think this will be a good fit.”</p><p>“Gonta is very thankful for Tsumugi.”</p><p>The cosplayer blushed, “You are so sweet Gonta.”</p><p>Gonta looked up in thought, “Gonta might need help knowing how to be a gentleman.”</p><p>“Not to worry Gonta, there should be people we can ask. But for now, let’s get this tuxedo ready.”</p><p>Monday 4:42 pm</p><p>“Oh hey Chihiro, what brings you here?”</p><p>“Eep” The petite brunette jumped as he heard a voice behind him. “Oh hi Kyoko!”</p><p>She smiled, “Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. It was nice to see you sign up for the speed dating event.”</p><p>Chihiro sighed, “Well I don’t know how that’s going to go….”</p><p>“You’re not confident about that.”</p><p>“Well-” and without realizing it he started spilling his guts to her, “So now I have this pamphlet from Taka and both of them are doing their own thing. I don’t know what to do.”</p><p>Kyoko paused holding her hand to her chin in thought. “I think I know someone who can help you, someone who also could be more confident and he seems to be doing okay in the relationship department. Follow me.”</p><p>Chihiro felt hopeful, “Okay, let’s go.”</p><p>Monday 4:55 pm</p><p>*Knock knock knock*</p><p>Kirumi paused the sewing project she was working on. Unsurprisingly she had been in high demand since the speed dating was announced as Miu, Keebo, and Teruteru came by asking if she would be willing to make outfits for them. By the time she was finished taking all of their measurements over an hour had passed.</p><p>Kirumi looked at the thread she was using for Miu’s dress. As she walked to the door she mused, “I might need to talk to Kazuichi in order to make something ideal for Keebo.”</p><p>She opened there, “Oh hi there, you are Yasuhiro.”</p><p>He awkwardly smiled, “Oh, yeah, and you’re uhhhh-”</p><p>“Kirumi” She finished.</p><p>He snapped his fingers, “Yeah! Listen I was wondering if you could help me out.”</p><p>“Would you like me to make you attire for Friday?”</p><p>He held his hands together, “Yes please.”</p><p>She smiled, “Consider it done, you are number four on my request list. I should have it done by Wednesday at the latest.”</p><p>“Thanks Kirumi, your classmate was right, you’re awesome!”</p><p>She pondered, “That is nice to hear, who complimented me this time?”</p><p>He ran his hand through his hair, “Oh! Kiyo and I were kicking it until he mentioned how he had his outfit picked out since he has engaged in a lot of cultural rituals. He recommended you as being very considerate and reliable.”</p><p>“Please give him my thanks.”</p><p>Yasuhiro waved bye and Kirumi got back to work. <em>I’m surprised more of them haven’t asked me.</em></p><p>5:24pm</p><p>*Ding* Mikan pulled out her phone. <em>I know I should really change that since addiction can lead to a variety of physical issues and that cell phones are designed to cause a stimulus and response, but I really need to make sure the other girls help me with this Friday. It’d be really nice to meet a really cute and nice guy.</em></p><p>Ibuki: Ibuki finished her music practice, when do you guys want to go SHOPING!!!!!!!!!!!😘😝😁😙😆</p><p>She’s even using more emoticons than usual. And she spelled shopping wrong.</p><p>Mahiru: I have about 15 more minutes for my film to develop</p><p>Hiyoko: I’m done the three of us should go</p><p>Ibuki: 😞</p><p>Mahiru: 😞</p><p>Hiyoko: OMG, of course I meant the four of us, slip of my finger</p><p>Mahiru: Mikan?</p><p>Mikan: I can be ready whenever you guys are, I finished my work, but how are we going to get there. Take a bus?</p><p>Ibuki: IBUKISGOTTHIS!</p><p>
  <em> I guess The Imposter will be taking us then. </em>
</p><p>5:36 pm</p><p>“This will certainly do.” Korekiyo pulled out the tuxedo and thoughts of the quinceanera he had attended in Chile. “Humanity sure is beautiful” he sighed.</p><p>He looked at the guest list. <em>There are a lot of really nice girls, I need to do my part and make sure my social etiquette is up to par.</em></p><p>He looked at where he used to have a photo on his desk of his sister.</p><p><em>I still think about you quite a bit, but it’s time I move on. Honestly it has been long overdue.</em> He thought of his therapy sessions.</p><p>‘Kiyo where does your sister end and where do you begin?’</p><p>‘I do not understand the question, she is always a part of me’</p><p>‘And does her being a part of you allow for you to be a part of yourself?’</p><p>Kiyo sighed. Hope had a top notch therapy staff and vetting program. They knew within weeks about his homicidal tendencies. His mood stabilizer and antidepressants helped him.</p><p>His freshman year was especially rough adjusting to medication as he had to switch from an SSRI to an SNRI before the MAO inhibitor affected him appropriately with no side effects. He finally understood what his therapist had meant when he had asked him when his sister ended and he began.</p><p>He knew the school had felt he had made strides when in that spring his therapist went on paternity leave for six weeks. I guess working at Hope’s Peak had it’s perks. The school felt comfortable with him seeing a female therapist in the interim. Something they never would have allowed during the fall.</p><p>Eventually therapy all but stopped other than him meeting with his therapist once every few months. At this point it felt more like two friends talking than therapy, though his therapist was quick to remind Kiyo of his professional obligations while acknowledging that in other cultures therapy could have a much more informal or even familial dynamic.</p><p>It had been a long road to recovery, but he could now look at someone as beautiful as Kirumi and think about how beautiful she was simply because HE enjoyed her, not anything that he would have thought his sister would have wanted.</p><p>It took him over two months with his therapist to admit the sexual abuse he had endured and two more to admit how his sister was so possessive that she would insinuate in his mind that he had to think violently about other women around him.</p><p>He hadn’t had a homicidal thought for long he couldn’t remember when he last had one.</p><p>It helped that he had friends here too. Rantaro and he got along very well and he enjoyed Ryoma also. Yasuhiro was always fun to hang out with though he felt more like a playmate after they smoked.</p><p>Kiyo opened a notepad as he started looking at his handbook of what the different girls like.</p><p>“I should go to a floral shop. Hmmm...maybe Kaede could help me, she’s very thoughtful.”</p><p>*Knock knock*</p><p>“Hmmm” he opened the door.</p><p>“Oh hi Korekiyo” The robot asked with apprehension, “Is now a bad time?”</p><p>“Not at all my friend, please come in.” Korekiyo gestured to his antique rocking chair he had acquired in Chad.</p><p>Keebo took a seat, “Listen, I, I am not sure how to approach this...speed dating and since you were the cultural anthropologist-”</p><p>Kiyo’s eyes sparkled. I love teaching others who want to learn about this stuff “You would like for me to teach you what people usually do.”</p><p>“Yes please.”</p><p>Kiyo put his hand in front of his face, “And attire are you taken care of for that?”</p><p>Keebo smiled, “Yes Miu and Teruteru have been helping me.”</p><p>Speaking of dating. I guess God made two of them after all.</p><p>The anthropologist shook his head. As much as humanity was beautiful that did not apply to his view of either Teruteru or Miu, but at least they had each other.</p><p>“Certainly Keebo, let’s get started.”</p><p>5:48 pm</p><p>“Ooohhh I don’t know.” Hina anxiously looked at the dress as she focused on the cleavage area. “Won’t it be a bit...revealing….I don’t like that.”</p><p>Sakura had her clothing material in hand. “Don’t do anything you aren’t comfortable with. It’s not worth demeaning yourself for one night.”</p><p>Hina pouted, “I want to look pretty though.”</p><p>“You are pretty.”</p><p>“I wish more boys would feel that way.”</p><p>Sakura stared down her best friend. <em>Oh Hina, I wish you were more confident with this, it’s not your fault many of the boys in our class lack enough common sense to see what a catch you are.</em> “Hina, we are athletes. We do not let others' perceptions dictate how we feel, neither of us would have ever become ultimates if we did that.”</p><p>Leon walked over, “Dang Hina!” She felt uncomfortable as he looked her body up and down more than once. “If that’s what you’re going to wear you’ll be really hot.”</p><p>“Uuuhhhh...thanks….Leon.”</p><p>“No problem!” He grinned before making his way to another section of the store.</p><p>Hina looked at Sakura, “Maybe it isn’t that bad….”</p><p>Sakura smiled and shook her head, “No, let’s get something else.”</p><p>“Yeah, you’re right.”</p><p>…..</p><p>“How are things with you Sayaka? It’s been a while since we’ve really talked.”</p><p>Well, we used to talk every day and I know Kyoko wouldn’t be okay with that if it continued. Especially since I was competing with her.</p><p>“Yeah, I know it’s been a while!” The pop star put on her winningest smile, “How are things with you?”</p><p>“Oh, good, things are going well for me, and you?”</p><p>“Oh things are good also.”</p><p>An awkward pause filled the air.</p><p>
  <em> Makoto am I ever going to meet anyone as nice and thoughtful as you? </em>
</p><p>“So how about-”</p><p>“Makoto which of our classmates do you think are the nicest of the boys?”</p><p>Makoto thought about it, “Well let’s see, maybe Chihiro and Taka?”</p><p>Sayaka thought about the two of them….”Hmmmmm okay thank you” she smiled, “I better go check on the others!” as she made her way towards the others.</p><p>“That was weird,” Makoto commented to no one in particular.</p><p>5:58 pm</p><p>Miu laid backed against Teruteru’s chest. “So any thoughts about Friday?”</p><p>Teruteru played with her golden hair, “Hmmm...I wonder if they need help with the catering.”</p><p>She slid a finger against his arm “Hah! Like they can compete with everything you can whip up.”</p><p>He smiled, “That’s true, I sure know how to get those” He in turn ran his hand down her arm, “creative juices going.”</p><p>“I mean, like speed dating is awesome, but-”</p><p>“You mean how everyone thinks we’re official?”</p><p>The blonde sat up and looked at him, “Well yeah, I know every guy is raring to have a go with me, but like are there-”</p><p>“Miu.” The portly chef held his hands up. “My dear you are like a fine wine that no one else can compare too, but I don’t see any problem finding other ingredients that can...compliment that.”</p><p>“So, like a threesome?” She asked.</p><p>He looked at her with surprise before responding, “If you so wish, things are fun right now, why complicate things with labels?”</p><p>“Well, if you say so.”</p><p>6:11 pm</p><p>“Thank you for taking us to the mall Rantaro!” Angie beamed, we are very happy with what we got.</p><p>“Yeah, that wasn’t too terrible,” Himiko added.</p><p>Tenko tapped her fingers together too, “Both of you” looking at Rantaro and Ryoma, “Weren’t too bad for degenerates.”</p><p>Rantaro held up his hands smiling, “Well I have a bunch of younger sisters, what kind of example would I be if I acted inappropriately!”</p><p>Ryoma nodded, “Women deserve to be treated with respect.”</p><p>Angie smiled at him, “Your tuxedo looks very sharp Ryoma I look forward to my 15 minutes talking to you on Friday. Come on Himiko we have work to do.”</p><p>“Wait for me!” Tenko followed them.</p><p>“Well, probably best if we work on our school work.” Ryoma commented to Rantaro.</p><p>Rantaro gave him a look, “Alright, but tomorrow we’re going to have you work to know their interests better. I bet Kiyo is already working on that.”</p><p>Ryoma pulled out a candy cigarette, “To be fair he also probably has enough clothes to supply all of the men for Friday.”</p><p>“Fair enough.”</p><p>6:22 pm</p><p>*Knock knock knock*</p><p>“Oh Hajime!”</p><p>“Oh, hi Sonia, what’s up? Are you looking for Gundham?”</p><p>“Yes! Have you seen him around?”</p><p>He looked at her with a bit of uncertainty as he sipped from his orange juice, “Well, he’s pretty good at being sneaky. I’m not sure.”</p><p>“Yes ever since he got selected for speed dating he has, oh I always forget the expression, I believe it is either ‘he has given me the slip’ or ‘he has slipped it in.’ ”</p><p>Hajime spat back into his orange juice and turned beet red, “It’s definitely the first one Sonia!”</p><p>“Strange” she mused, “Kokichi and Hiyoko were quite emphatic that I should use the second phrase.”</p><p>“I think listening to Hiyoko and Kokichi was your mistake there.”</p><p>She had forgotten how untrustworthy the two could be. She glanced at Gundham’s door.</p><p>“Let me try his door” She asserted and walked to his door.</p><p>*Bang bang bang* “Gundham Tanaka I know you are in there!” *Bang bang bang* “Maga-Z is on the window sill and motioned to me that you are here!”</p><p>The door cracked open slightly, “You dare disturb me! I am at hard work confining the chaotic forces that dare to rip apart this very fabric of existence!”</p><p>“Gundham Tanaka!” she spat, “I will not accept any excuse for you not talking to me right now, let me in!”</p><p>Gundham muttered something to himself about a she-beast before opening the door.</p><p>Sonia walked in and closed the door behind her. “Gundham, I know you are the Supreme Overlord of Ice who was formed before this world was even forged! I know this world exists only because you will it! But as we’ve talked before if you are feeling uncomfortable with something I need to know!”</p><p>“Uncomfortable?! You think one with the charisma and adeptness as I could feel uncomfortable?”</p><p>Sonia gave him an icy glare and hissed, “Gundham Tanaka.”</p><p>He considered her as his shoulders sagged, “Perhaps I have been cursed and as such have had a harder time feeling as invincible.”</p><p>She let out a breath of relief, “Thank you, that is all I want to know.”</p><p>Gundham looked at her, “Perhaps, my attire has been of the astral realm for so long I do not have the necessary cloth for an event of such minor importance.”</p><p>Sonia smiled, “Would you perhaps want to acquire necessary provisions with me.”</p><p>Gundham smiled, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”</p><p>6:36 pm</p><p>“Alright Akane that’s enough for today.” Nekomaru bellowed.</p><p>“We’ve only been sparring for an hour.” the gymnast complained.</p><p>“It took you 2 and a half hours to do thirty minutes of homework, we still have more to do.”</p><p>She eyed him, “I know you’re good for one more.”</p><p>“Hey you two, mind if I join you, I, uh, could use a workout.” Mondo walked over.</p><p>“Hell yeah, let’s rumble” Akane roared and before either boy could respond leapt at Mondo with full force.</p><p>“Guess she’s going to get another stern talking to from the headmaster.” Nekomaru sighed, “Like that ever does anything.”</p><p>6:45 pm</p><p>“Okay, let’s take it from the top.” Junko sat down at a makeshift table with Mukuro across from it. The two had bowls of spaghetti in front of them. “Hi Mukuro you look lovely this evening.”</p><p>“Thanks” Mukuro murmured.</p><p>“So, you’re the ultimate soldier, what is that like?”</p><p>“Oh it isn’t anything too exciting that I can really talk about.”</p><p>There was a pause.</p><p>“Really sis? We’ve been working on this for hours, do you think any of the boys are going to find that interesting.”</p><p>“You made me sign up in the first place.” She mumbled.</p><p>“What was that!?”</p><p>“Nothing.”</p><p>“Let’s try it again.”</p><p>6:50 pm</p><p>“Oh Kokichi, I wasn’t expecting to run into you here.”</p><p>“Nagito, my main man! Just who I was looking for.”</p><p>Nagito held up his hands, “If you’re considering this lucky then perhaps I should-”</p><p>Kokichi grabbed his arm, “Nonsense, after all we bat for the same team, we have to stick together.”</p><p>Nagito glanced at him, “Alright so what can I help you with.”</p><p>Kokichi gestured to the storage unit. “There are so many things in here, it would be really lucky if I could find the exact thing I am looking for. And the sooner we find it the sooner I can let you be on your merry way.”</p><p>Nagito looked around, “Well, maybe I can find something lucky too.”</p><p>7:02 pm</p><p>Taka wiped the sweat on his brow. “In Your Face” and “Hold Me Tight.” That completes my fifty book checklist.</p><p>A sarcastic voice called out “Are you sure you have enough to read?”</p><p>Taka glanced over to see Byakuya on his laptop and Celeste sipping tea.</p><p>“Personally I think it is admirable for him to work so hard.” The gambler remarked.</p><p>“Work ethic can only get you so far.” Byakuya countered.</p><p>“I don’t see you participating to demonstrate your dating skills!” Taka asserted.</p><p>“SHHHHHH!!!!!” Hifumi shushed him from his laptop a few tables away. “Good work isn’t conducive in your chaos.”</p><p>Taka stepped back like he had been slapped, “Chaos.”</p><p>Celeste examined the prefect, “Perhaps, if you would like a lesson on how to read people I would be happy to play a game of poker with you.”</p><p>An opportunity to become better at reading people! I can read the cliff notes of about 10 of these books instead.</p><p>“Yes, I would love that opportunity.”</p><p>“Perfect, and poker is better with more people. Byakuya?”</p><p>The heir smirked, “I will be happy to demonstrate what this plebeian needs to work on.”</p><p>“Hifumi, I expect you will be in attendance.”</p><p>“Uhhh, wha-um yes.”</p><p>She looked around, “We need one more.”</p><p>Tsumugi entered the library as she had recently read the newest chapter of the fanfiction Teenage Wasteland and wanted to ask Hifumi about it. “Hifumi there you!”</p><p>Celeste interrupted, “Perfect! Tsumugi, would you be so kind as to play poker with us tomorrow.”</p><p>“Well it’s plain to see that I wouldn’t-”</p><p>“Perfect. My dorm room at 4pm.”</p><p>Tsumugi looked in surprise at Hifumi, “Will you be attending?”</p><p>He looked at her helplessly, “I agreed in the same way as you did. Were you mentioning Galactic Melancholy?”</p><p>“No I was talking about…..”</p><p>Taka saw that all of them had engaged in their own conversations. 4pm tomorrow. He made a note on his phone calendar and made his way to his dorm, he had reading to do.</p><p>7:14 pm</p><p>“Mahiru! I think this one is perfect!”</p><p>The redhead walked over and wrinkled her nose as she examined the dress. “Actually, I think this one looks really nice. I think I’ll go try it on. Thank you Hiyoko!”</p><p>Hiyoko smiled, “Of course”</p><p>As she waited for Mahiru to get changed she glanced over at Mikan and Ibuki looking at clothes trying to find something for Mikan.</p><p>She sighed as she felt her body tense up. Weak Mikan, cling to others Mikan, “trip” and throw your whole body to anyone who will accept you Mikan.</p><p>Hiyoko knew the other girl didn’t deserve as much crap as Hiyoko gave her, but it was so hard to hold back. <em>I didn’t have the luxury to be weak, I would have been eaten alive.</em> Hiyoko hated weakness, she was reamed for every ounce of weakness she had from her family and she saw to what extent it caused life to be harder.</p><p>“So what do you think?” Mahiru left the changing room in her dress.</p><p>Hiyoko could feel her heart starting to race, Mahiru looked stunning. “You look amazing! You totally should get it! You’re going to be the prettiest girl there!”</p><p>Mahiru blushed, “I don’t know about that, but thank you…..I like it too.”</p><p>Hiyoko watched the redhead turn and head back to the changing room and briefly glanced at her walking away. She knew that while she was able to make Mahiru blush that Mahiru still preferred men. Just her luck that of the four of them of course she’d get a crush on the one of them who wasn’t gay like her or bi-sexual like the other two girls. Then again with Mikan’s history it was hard to know her natural preference compared to her trauma wanting her to be accepted by anyone.</p><p>Ibuki on the other hand…..</p><p>“Yahoo! There you are!”</p><p>“Ibuki are you blind, we’ve been, like, 20 feet away from you this whole time!”</p><p>“Ibuki knows, but there are so many things that draw her attention, like that dress reminds her of the time she was on tour at Christchurch, New Zealand and this boy and girl made a bet as to who could make out with Ibuki better!”</p><p>Hiyoko rubbed her temples. Typical Ibuki.</p><p>“Oh hey Ibuki,” Mahiru said as she carried her dress to them.</p><p>“There’s my favorite freckled friend! Ibuki has been working on her alliterations.”</p><p>The two blinked at her.</p><p>“Anyways,” Ibuki tapped her fingers together, “The Imposter got us all food and is waiting outside.”</p><p>‘Is that what he was doing? I thought he just hated shopping!” Hiyoko remarked.</p><p>“Let’s see, he got Ibuki a slice of mushroom and pineapple pizza, with some chocolate chip jerky and civet coffee for dessert…”</p><p>“Uh..I.Ibuki…”</p><p>Mikan had made her way over while the girls were talking, Hiyoko bit her tongue, she needed to maintain her cool. Almost everyone in the class had talked to her at one point or another about being nicer to Mikan and even people from other classes. She could still remember where Maki “accidentally” kicked her when she and Kokichi tried to prank Mikan and Tenko by sending fake love letters to each other. Still was hard though.</p><p>“I-i d.don’t think coffee is a good idea for you this late in the night e-even if you think it c-c-calms you down.”</p><p>“Awww Mikan” Ibuki pouted, “We need to live a little! Besides, the Imposter got you an organic chicken sandwich, with a side of coleslaw and some mineral water.”</p><p>The nurse paused at the thoughtful items she was in store for. Ibuki listed off the other food items as they made their way to the checkout area.</p><p>Mahiru sighed, “Is finding a thoughtful and reliable guy so hard?”</p><p>Hiyoko winced at the comment.</p><p>7:23 pm</p><p>“So even though you always felt weak you still were able to make a relationship work?”</p><p>Shuichi smiled at the programmer, “Well...so far so good. I think.”</p><p>That is nice to hear. I’m still a little worried.</p><p>“I guess I just worry about...being strong enough.”</p><p>“Yeah….I worry about that too.”</p><p>Chihiro reacted in surprise, Shuichi had a hot girlfriend and was able to solve a lot of important cases.</p><p>“S-Still?”</p><p>The detective offered a sheepish smile, “Well, it gets a little better every day. Although….” he trailed off, “Hey Chihiro, if you would like, you can join me for a training session. Every night at 9pm Kaito has Maki and I work out in the courtyard. Would you, would you like to join us?”</p><p>Chihiro blushed a little, the idea of working out with them and them seeing how weak he was.</p><p>Shuichi picked up on this, “When I first started I was lucky if I could do five push ups, please we’d love for you to join us.”</p><p>Chihiro had seen them before, their workouts were the worst kept secret in the school next to Miu and Teruteru. But if they all would be really nice….</p><p>“Um okay, I will be there.”</p><p>7:37 pm</p><p>Gonta finished working in his lab and wiped his brow.</p><p>“Phew Gonta is tired.” The entomologist found himself always at peace when he was able to work with his bugs. The idea that things so little could have the whole world depending on them. They were so dependable.</p><p>Gonta pulled out his phone to see that it was 7:38 pm.</p><p>“Gonta has time to try to find someone who can help him with conversation.”</p><p>Gonta made his way out of his lab before seeing a member from another class. It appeared that she had fallen asleep on her way from the boy’s dorm back to her own.</p><p>“Um excuse me, is Miss. Chiaki okay.”</p><p>The gamer stirred, “Huh? Oh hi Gonta.” *Yawns* “How are you this evening?”</p><p>Gonta smiled, “Gonta has finished his lab work and is now trying to figure out who to get advice from in order to be gentleman during speed dating.”</p><p>Chiaki put her finger to her chin in thought, “Hey Gonta, I have some dating simulator games if you would like to play them. It could help you prepare for speed dating, I think.”</p><p>“That sounds like a great idea Chiaki!” Gonta looked down, “Gonta feels pretty hopeless otherwise.” Gonta looked at her with uncertainty, “Ummm what time and place would we meet.”</p><p>Chiaki yawned, “Oh that’s easy, just meet outside my dorm tomorrow at 5pm, I’ll let you in.” Chiaki looked at her controller, “It can be up to six players so I will try to find other speed daters who want to play it too.” She yawned again, “Well, I am getting sleepy, goodnight Gonta.”</p><p>“Goodnight Chiaki.”</p><p>7:47 pm</p><p>“Goodnight you two, I enjoyed going out with both of you.” Sayaka smiled at Hina and Sakura.</p><p>“Yeah it was super fun!” Hina beamed. Sayaka was really smart and seemed really nice to, but usually kept to herself, it was nice having a chance to hang out with her more.</p><p>“Hina, shall we go workout?”</p><p>Yes! I need to get my swimming in and it’s late!</p><p>The two girls made their way to their dorms to drop off their clothes before exercising.</p><p>“Sakura, do you ever feel like Makoto should have been the ultimate unlucky student?”</p><p>The martial artist furrowed her brow, “It did seem rather unfortunate when the handle somehow fell off his changing room door with him in it.”</p><p>“And now we’re going to be up super late.” Hina whined.</p><p>The two girls made their way to the other side of the dorm.</p><p>“Hey hey.”</p><p>That has to be Chiaki “Hey Chiaki how’s it going?”</p><p>“Great, actually you both are doing the speed dating right?”</p><p>Sakura responded, “That is correct.”</p><p>“Would you two be interested in playing a dating simulation game tomorrow? I think it might help you prepare for Friday. Gonta and I are going to play at 5 and we need more people.”</p><p>The two athletes looked at each other.</p><p>“I am happy to participate as long as you also want to try it Hina.” Sakura affirmed.</p><p>Okay, time to take this head on. “Yeah, let’s do it!”</p><p>8:03 pm</p><p>Kazuichi entered his room. Fuyuhiko wasn’t kidding; they really spent the day out on the town. He glanced at the clock, “Well I should be able to get my homework done and then get to bed.”</p><p>He pulled out several of his tools and started to work. His mind always was better when he was working. Going on a speed dating event so I can find someone other than Sonia. “Heh, I feel nervous, I’m glad Fuyuhiko and Peko are going to help me with this.”</p><p>*knock knock*</p><p>“One sec!”</p><p>He grabbed a rag and wiped down his hands which at this point were covered in grease.</p><p>“Oh hey Kirumi, what’s up?”</p><p>“Good evening Kazuichi. I had a request.”</p><p>Kazuichi looked at her with surprise, “Oh?! Absolutely!” He smiled “You’re always helping others, what do you need?”</p><p>Kirumi pulled out a piece of paper. “I am making attire for several of the others, but I was curious as to what metals you would think would work best for a tuxedo for Keebo.”</p><p>Kazuichi took the paper and looked at it. “Well most of the outfit can be cotton, polyester and other typical materials for clothes, but he is going to need a metal coat that is compatible with that. I think I can make something like that, is it alright if I get it to you by Wednesday?”</p><p>She smiled, “That would be excellent, thank you Kazuichi.”</p><p>She turned and Kazuichi couldn’t help but briefly check her out as she walked away. <em>Well, maybe it won’t be too hard to be interested in someone else this Friday.</em></p><p>8:43 pm</p><p>“So then with the celebration card drawn and the lovers card drawn that means either there will be new love or the ending of old love….hmmmm I guess the first? Maybe I’ll try drawing again later.” Yasuhiro mumbled to himself, “I’m hungry. I wonder if anyone left anything good in the fridge.”</p><p>He made his way out to the common room to see someone leaning into the fridge and saw Leon pull out a bag that had the name ‘Mondo don’t eat unless you want a knuckle sandwich’ on the bag.</p><p>“Bruh, that’s definitely not your food.”</p><p>Leon gave him an annoyed look, “Come on man I’m hungry and besides you totally would do the same thing.”</p><p><em>Well he’s got me there.</em> “Okay, you got me.” Yasuhiro put his hand to his chin, “Are you going to prepare for Friday?”</p><p>The star smiled as he chewed on a taco, “Mmmm...yef” *swallow* “Yeah man I got my outfit today so I’m totally set until Friday.”</p><p>Yasuhiro scratched his chin, “Are you going to read up on any of the girls?”</p><p>Leon gave him a thumbs up, “I’ve had so many girls hit on me during my baseball days I’ve got this.” he put his hands behind his head, “I’ve got this.” He grabbed the rest of Mondo’s food and threw the bag in the trash, “See you later.”</p><p>Yasuhiro was left alone in the common room, “Man he might be even lazier than I am.” and made his way back to his room looking at his Tarot Cards.</p><p>*Slam* “Who the fuck ate my tacos!”</p><p>Yasuhiro quietly and quickly ran over to his light switch, turned off the light, and climbed in bed.</p><p>8:55 pm</p><p>
  <em> Alright the coast is clear. This will be perfect. </em>
</p><p>Kokichi brought the sign he had arranged with him with the Christmas lights perfectly arranged.</p><p>
  <em> Good ol’ Nagito finding the light up letters. </em>
</p><p>He adjusted the lights as he got to the nearest outlet.</p><p>Ladies of Hope Peak. Please consider me for your speed date. &lt;3 Keebo</p><p>“Having fun there?”</p><p>He felt a bead of sweat go down his forehead, he knew that seething voice.</p><p>“Oh, hi Maki so nice to see you! What brings you out on this fine evening?”</p><p>Maki took the sign from his hand.</p><p>“You know that is my sign, I didn’t take you for also being the ultimate thief.”</p><p>“Do you want to d-....suffer some negative consequences.”</p><p>“I see that anger management class is paying off.”</p><p>He felt a hand place itself on his throat, only for another hand to touch Maki’s arm.</p><p>“I think it might be best if you let me take care of him.” Peko mentioned to Maki.</p><p>“I have the sign.” Mukuro added as she took the sign from his hand.</p><p>Maki sighed and walked off with Mukuro as Peko led Kokichi back towards his dorm.</p><p>“You’re slipping, you’re becoming more predictable.”</p><p>Kokichi felt his breath hitch. The girls didn’t seem surprised by his actions what-so-ever.</p><p>“That’s okay” he replied, “I still have four more days to get it right.”</p><p>-----</p><p>“You were right, though I wouldn’t say any of us were particularly surprised.” Mukuro mentioned to Maki.</p><p>“Well when you’re in the same class as him you pick up on his tendencies more easily.”</p><p>Mukuro took a deep breath, “I need help.”</p><p><em>Weird, what would she need help with?</em>  “With what?”</p><p>“This speed dating thing.”</p><p>“Oh, right you’re signed up.”</p><p>“Junko is trying to train me to date, I’m not sure what to do. It seems like both you and Peko figured it out.”</p><p>The swordsmen walked up and joined them, “I would say that Fuyuhiko and I are an exception unless there is a boy here who you happened to grow up with and have loved that entire time.”</p><p>Maki played with her hair, “I wouldn’t look at me either as Kaito….he’s kind of...one of a kind.”</p><p>Mukuro put her hands over her face, “I’m not sure what to do…”</p><p>Peko put a hand on her arm, “Let’s meet here at 9:30, after Maki’s training the next few days, we’ll see what we can do.”</p><p>Mukuro for a moment looked like she would smile before turning, “I should go, Junko wants me to practice pretending to give out my phone number.”</p><p>The other two waited until she was out of earshot and then thirty more seconds considering she was a soldier with exceptional hearing.</p><p>“She needs a lot of help.” Peko said as Maki nodded.</p><p>9:02 pm</p><p>“Are you sure it’s okay that we’re slightly late.”</p><p>“It should be fine.” Shuichi smiled, “Kaito has been on time to this twice and we’ve been doing this for over a year.”</p><p>“Kaito late again?”</p><p>“Oh hey Maki!” Shuichi greeted her, “You know Chihiro right?”</p><p>Chihiro could feel himself wanting to shrink briefly as Maki’s gaze passed over him. She nodded at him.</p><p>Shuichi added, “We’re going to help him get stronger.”</p><p>“There you all are! And I see Chihiro is joining us! Hell yeah, the more the merrier!”</p><p>
  <em> This will be….interesting </em>
</p><p>9:38 pm</p><p>Kaito and Shuichi were hanging out after training.</p><p>“He seems like a cool dude, he kind of reminds me of you when we first met.” Kaito played with his goatee.</p><p>Shuichi played with his hair, “Yeah Kyoko brought him to me saying she felt like we’d be able to relate to each other.”</p><p>Kaito grinned, “Well then we’ll have to see who will be the next lucky Kaede. He’s really nice and thoughtful; he just needs to believe in himself.”</p><p>Shuichi smirked, “Well you only told him that six times.”</p><p>A voice cut through their conversation, “Just a reminder that curfew starts at 10 pm with Monokuma’s nighttime announcement.”</p><p>Kaito sighed a frustrated breath and closed his eyes, “We know Monomi, you only tell us this every night.”</p><p>Shuichi looked at her, “Is your brother excited about hosting the speed dating event.”</p><p>“I’m not his brother!” She protested, “And yes, he made his own shipping chart of the twenty-four students. He has seven lines that he loves, though three of them are same-sex who can’t really spend anytime speed dating.”</p><p>Kaito snapped his fingers, “Shuichi we totally should do the same thing?”</p><p>Shuichi looked at him oddly, “Make a shipping chart.”</p><p>Kaito thought for a moment, “Well, maybe that too. I mean we should totally try to help set people up.”</p><p>“Uh Kaito, are you sure that’s a good idea, we don’t necessarily know who is the best fit for who?”</p><p>“Come on Shuichi! Look, everyone wants to have connection, to love and be loved. One of the worst things that a person can experience is loneliness. Who cares if it isn’t the best fit, but people need to get out there and start living life. So are you with me.”</p><p>Shuichi smiled to himself, “Yeah Kaito I’m in.”</p><p>Kaito gave him a high five, “Hell yeah! That’s my sidekick!”</p><p>“Shhhhh you might wake people up.” Monomi protested.</p><p>Kaito wasn’t listening, “Come on, let’s go hit the hay tomorrow is going to be a busy day!” as the two left.</p><p>“No one listens to me” The bunny pouted.</p><p>11:11 pm</p><p>Ryoma couldn’t fall asleep. He had been glancing at the clock the last twenty minutes. He remembered from the sleep hygiene his therapist had given him that he would be better off going somewhere else.</p><p>He put on a jacket as he walked out his door. He glanced at the stars. He could remember a night at a park with his girlfriend’s head on his shoulder as she pointed out different constellations to him. He still remembered Orion's Belt as it was there in the late autumn November sky.</p><p>He stared at the sky as his mind walked down memory lane. His girlfriend was long gone, but he could at times almost feel like he could smell the vanilla scent she used as a shampoo or hear her scoff at something that wasn’t funny.</p><p>“Hey Ryoma, are you okay?” A soft voice asked.</p><p>Ryoma jumped as he tried to adjust his hat to make it look like that was what he meant to do the whole time.</p><p>Sayaka giggled, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”</p><p>Ryoma nodded, “It’s alright, I’m not used to someone else not being able to sleep either. I figured being a pop sensation you’d have a strict regimen for sleeping.”</p><p>Sayaka looked down, “Well, I usually do.”</p><p>Ryoma took out a candy cigarette. <em>My dentist is going to kill me the next time I see her.</em> He looked at Sayaka, <em>I hope she is alright</em>.</p><p>The pop-star smiled at him, “You don’t need to worry about me.” She paused as he reacted to her intuition, “I’m psychic you know.”</p><p>Ryoma chuckled, “You know, with my past I barely watch any TV. When I came here, I thought for the longest time you were the ultimate clairvoyant, though I had no idea what Yasuhiro was.”</p><p>Sayaka put her hand to her chin in thought, “Well, how do you know I’m not both?”</p><p>Ryoma adjusted his hat, “No arguments here, you pick up on more things about me when we talk.” He glanced at her, “You sure you’re doing alright?”</p><p>She frowned, “I’m doing okay, I do appreciate you asking though.”</p><p>“Well I still have a long way to go, but if anything is up I am happy to lend an ear.” He yawned, “Well, maybe I’ll be able to get some sleep. Goodnight Sayaka.”</p><p>“Goodnight Ryoma, thank you for asking about me.”</p><p>He made his way back to his dorm, Well I guess we got a little closer today.</p><p>11:58 pm</p><p>Monokuma pulled out his chart.</p><p>“Interesting developments today indeed, pairing Chihiro and Gonta because they’re both nice? What was I thinking!”</p><p>Attendees:</p><p>Hiyoko</p><p>Mahiru</p><p>Ibuki</p><p>Mikan</p><p>Kirumi</p><p>Angie</p><p>Himiko</p><p>Miu</p><p>Sayaka</p><p>Hina</p><p>Sakura</p><p>Mukuro</p><p>Mondo</p><p>Taka</p><p>Chihiro</p><p>Leon</p><p>Yasuhiro</p><p>Gundham</p><p>Kazuichi</p><p>Teruteru</p><p>Ryoma</p><p>Korekiyo</p><p>Gonta</p><p>Keebo</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Tuesday 6:30 AM - 12:00 PM</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In this AU the ultimates switch each day from class lessons with their class 77, 78 and 79 and class lessons that pertain to their talents. Today and Thursday the are sorted into performance, athletics, field and ethics. I made a list of who would go where with some people rotating. If anyone is interested I can post the breakdown.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>6:30 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nekomaru smiled, he had finished his training and now had plenty of time to get ready for his day before meeting up with Akane. Everything was going according to plan. He felt a rumbling in his stomach, he was fortunate, despite having IBS it rarely bothered him. He made his way to the bathroom. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well I hope Akane doesn’t mind waiting who knows how long this is going to take.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Well good thing going to the bathroom never bothered him anyways.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>6:59 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Akane was bored, she felt fortunate today was field day where ultimates were grouped by their talents. She knew she would get to spend most of the day competing or fighting. She didn’t care if Hina was the ultimate swimmer, she was going to beat her in a swimming contest today. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought about lecture days and shuddered. Those were the most boring days. She liked her classmates, but unless they were using the virtual simulator to live through another war or killing game she wasn’t interested in what the teachers wanted to teach her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She huffed, she needed to get this energy out in the worst way and she needed a fight. She looked at the clock Nekomaru should have been here by now and she was tired of waiting. If he had to go to the bathroom again who knows how long he would be. She decided to try to find someone else with any luck she could find Peko, Sakura, Tenko or one of the other fighters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her gut started to tingle. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can get a fight!</span>
  </em>
  <span> She paused, it was telling her to head towards the boys dorm. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe Gonta or Mondo? Kaito is down to fight too though he isn’t as tough as the other two. Gonta didn’t like fighting, but even his defending himself could give her a workout.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She bolted out of the door feeling his skin starting to tingle. She lived for adrenaline, everything else seemed so boring in comparison. She cleared the path and saw the boys dorm, at that moment she saw a pompadour exit the main door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think fast!” She yelled as she charged him aiming with her best kick.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>8:01 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Atua had graced her with another beautiful day. Angie took a deep breath in. Lecture days were interesting and all, but it was hard to beat field day. Getting to spend the entire day outside or inside doing anything artistic that came to her mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Today she decided to settle at the generic meeting spot. Hope’s digs were nothing to sneeze at and she felt like drawing her fellow ultimates in action. She saw Rantaro make his way towards their lecturer who handed him an envelope. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I wonder if he is going to explore some place local or far away.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She saw Hajime hanging out nearby. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I guess he got field work today, though he wouldn’t really belong in performance or athletics. I guess that means Makoto must be in ethics today.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Angie wondered if the headmaster would ever agree to let her switch to ethics. She saw Hajime’s expression, seemingly out-of-place waiting to find out if he could go on a cool adventure with Rantaro as long as it was local. She felt badly for the boy, finding his God in Hope’s Peak, a school that will eventually close its doors and crumble. She thought of the Bob Dylan lyric about how everyone serves something.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh Hajime, don’t you realize how much happier you’d be if you knew Atua, you wouldn’t have to put all of your self-worth into a school.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She felt pity for her fellow ultimates, strip away their titles and what’s left? She thought about how many of them wouldn’t have a purpose if that were to happen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You wish you could ride this fine ass you virgin!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And of course Miu, bright and early made her presence known. Angie couldn’t blame the girl, many of the boys were quite attractive and considering their bodies were only several years from peak fertility Miu could certainly be an early bird in that regard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi sighed as he protested, “I just wanted to know if you were done with the wrench.” and threw his hands up in frustration as he walked towards Kaito who was adjusting his telescope.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Speaking of trying to find their identity in all the wrong places. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She observed the mechanic with his pink hair and jumpsuit. What would he be without that title? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kazuichi, if you live a long and healthy life you won’t be a mechanic forever.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She noticed the black roots that sometimes peeked out from the base of his hair from time to time. She also remembered when she could see the outlines of his contacts when he had to be her art subject and sit still for hours.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I think I’ll try to draw what I think he would look like without all of his disguises.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Mahiru! Take a shot of a couple of friends spending time together!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And there was Kaito, loud, assertive, brash. While he could certainly step on toes it was nice to be around others who believed in something strongly enough to act on it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru rolled her eyes, “I’m in the middle of trying to capture a morning shot! Gosh how unreliable can you get.” The redhead walked away.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Speaking of compensating.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Angie could empathize, Mahiru was essentially an artist and Angie could understand the challenges of working with something so subjective. If Angie let herself she would constantly feel inadequate, after all, can one ever definitely say their work is better than any of the greats?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced over and saw Gonta and Gundham working within twenty feet of each other, both with their respective populations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Angie thought about speed dating and how both of these boys were more at home with their hands and beings of another species. They were beautiful, being so connected to the gifts that Atua provided.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I think I’ll draw those two when I am done with my Kazuichi idea. Maybe this one will be the best drawing of those two yet; well, if Atua wills it. I’ll have to hurry though, the exhibition is Thursday.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked around, “Speaking of being awkward outside of their talent, where’s Mikan?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>8:22 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikan frowned as she finished with gauze and disinfectant. “I-I t-thought you a-agreed to try to get i-into less fights.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I didn’t start shit! </span>
  </em>
  <span>“I didn’t start shit!” Mondo snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah! I-I’m sorry” The nurse sobbed.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Shit, not again. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo felt incredibly uncomfortable. He hated to see girls cry. He thought back to when he, Daiya and their gang would party. That he would have an instant connection with a girl only to have to explain to her a few days later how he couldn’t be in one spot for too long. It wasn’t in his nature to settle down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was always honest and when some of the girls were insistent that they try something long distance Mondo would try his best, but he wasn’t a long distance kind of guy. He didn’t have Taka’s work ethic or Chihiro’s intelligence. Mondo knew he wasn’t the smartest guy, but he could certainly hold his own and he had enough experiences of making girls cry to know how much he hated it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko once had told him she felt like it was the feeling of powerlessness that could set him off, weakness if you will, and situations where Mikan would cry certainly could cause him to feel that. He hated how of the five times they had done the killing game twice he had become the killer. The combination of the Daiya secret motive and of Mondo feeling powerless or weak pushed him over the edge. He apologized to Chihiro and Makoto for weeks after their respective demises at his hands in the simulator. Thank god both were so nice and forgiving. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>One game after he killed her without her provoking him Sayaka wouldn’t even look at Leon for over a month before he bought train tickets for her whole band to visit. That convinced her to give him another chance. Which was kind of funny since in half their simulations since then she tried to kill him, even though she usually failed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The nurse continued to sob. Mondo took a deep breath. “Hey Mikan, look I’m sorry for yelling and I uh...I really appreciate the work you do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Hic* “Really?” *Hic*</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo gave her a thumbs up, “You always are here to help me, well on field days anyways when they let you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Hic* “But I-I”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo lowered his voice, “Hey Mikan, you didn’t do anything wrong. Listen, I’m sorry. Akane attacked me and I honestly was just trying to defend herself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikan had resumed wrapping his arm, “O-oh I s-see, that m-makes sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She finished the wrap and went to throw away the extra piece she cut off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ahhhhh!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In typical Mikan fashion she slipped by tripping over her own shoes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo averted his gaze. It was hard being around such an attractive girl who somehow had the talent of flipping up her skirt from time to time. He could feel the angel and devil on shoulder argue as to whether he should look or not. He wasn’t proud of the fact that the angel didn’t have a 100% win rate with this even if he was at around 90%.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Virtue was on his side today as without looking he made his way over and helped lift her up. He quickly sat down as even without looking another body part of his was in full attention and the last thing he wanted was for Mikan to see that and feel ashamed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay Mikan?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I’m fine” *hic* “I just hate b-being so clumsy and useless.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s not right!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” He put his hands on her shoulders, “You are not useless!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks she said” but in a way that they both knew she didn’t believe him. She looked at his right hand and blushed, “Your hands feel nice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh man</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo withdrew his hands more so out of surprise than any other reason. “Listen,” He started, “You do a lot for me and I really appreciate it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikan nodded and gave a small smile. Mondo said goodbye to her and made his way back towards the athletics group, hopefully Akane wasn’t going to ambush him again, though with Sakura, Tenko and the others he doubted anything would happen. Nekomaru kept a good leash on her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo walked back towards his class, fortunately the wounds were quite manageable, this was nothing compared to all the times he had fallen off his bike. He thought about Mikan and about how much it sucked that a girl that cute hated herself so much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo was very surprised when he realized how many hot girls were here at school. He hadn’t expected that to be the case. Other than a couple of weird times in the killing game simulator, once where he was attracted to Taka which made him feel sick, Taka was basically a brother to him and a time he was attracted to Makoto of all people even dreaming about giving him his underwear, Mondo found himself attracted to a lot of the girls here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He made his way on to the athletic pitch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey perfect timing” Nekomaru bellowed, “We’re just about to do 6 on 6 volleyball you in?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo thought briefly about how people like Akane and Maki would be serving the ball right at him, right at where his arm was still hurting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hell yeah I’m in!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>9:22 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think this is an important question as I certainly will be put in this position.” Sonia started.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko wanted to gag. Somehow Hope had found Barbie incarnate, made her smarter, and softer spoken. The girl had skin color like fresh milk and the last thing Toko wanted to hear was Sonia say any phrase that could be taken out of context. She didn’t need to imagine any position some of the lesser righteous boys would think of off of Sonia’s phrase.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Thank god Teruteru, Leon and Kazuichi aren’t here.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I understand why some of you who are by the book are having a hard time with this.” Fuyuhiko continued as Sonia handed him the vignette. “It’s pretty simple in my world, you sacrifice the one person to save the five.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked over at Byakuya, saw the look of disinterest, while still paying attention. She assumed that he would agree with Fuyuhiko on this one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s the classic trolley problem.” Shuichi continued as he took the vignette from Fuyuhiko, “It’s a question as to if you want to save more people, but be directly responsible for the individual's death.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko had to admit that Shuichi wasn’t bad to look at. On the days Byakuya had angered her most she didn’t mind imagining herself with Shuichi instead, as long as she could ignore his passivity and lack of confidence. Though she had to admit it seemed like he had been working on that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The paper slipped out Shuichi’s hands. Before he could grab it Kirumi had left her seat, bent over and grabbed the paper returning it to the detective’s hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko had watched Byakuya while keeping Kirumi in her vision. She saw as the heir’s eye twitched while looking disinterested. She wasn’t fooled. Someone like Byakuya had incredible self-control and the twitch was all she needed as proof as to his attraction to the maid.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Like anyone can compete with that! ‘Hi I’m Kirumi, I am a bombshell, intelligent, and happy to be your maid for the rest of my life. Oh and did I forget to mention I am happy to fulfill </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>any</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span> request.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Toko shuddered, how was she supposed to compete with that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am very thankful to have Fuyuhiko in our class, but I must respectfully disagree!” Taka asserted, “I understand that more lives would be lost, but even to pull the lever is to condemn someone to death. I stand by Kant’s deontological imperative.” He placed his fist into his other hand, “I think killing is wrong, plain and simple.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko glanced and noticed Kirumi nodding to Taka’s answer even with a small smile. The writer smiled to herself. She had written best sellers that included two characters falling in love with only a small amount of similarities. She read the list of speed daters and saw that both would be participating. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Perhaps if she could find ways to get these two to romantically want each other too. After all, their level of similarity was fairly high considering all the combinations Toko had worked with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought about the killing game simulator and how Taka had only killed when he had the flashback light Prime Minister of Japan motive. Even then, the simulator had to convince him that he also had essential knowledge to cure the country’s pandemic. Technically the Despair Disease had worked too, but Toko frowned at the laziness of that motive. As a writer she felt offended by its terrible quality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rumor had it that Kirumi only engaged in killing for the same reasons. She knew that Taka had written a letter of apology to everyone for the next three days before the entire class had told him to stop. She also heard that Kirumi wanted to hand in her title after her killings, only for Jin Kirigiri to tell her that they had thousands of motives available and that it was the machine’s job to get everyone to crack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had her attention drawn back to the classroom as Byakuya started to answer where he stood on this vignette. She had to have him, she would do whatever she could to make sure that Kirumi had someone in her life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:02 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru glanced at the clock above Celeste’s poker game. 10:02 AM, that means the asparagus and potatoes should be done in about 25 minutes. He looked around. Even though he had been here for a while sometimes he found himself still in awe to the extent of Hope’s Facilities. The fact that the 12 ultimates could all be working on their talents simultaneously was astounding. Prior to being recruited here he considered himself lucky when his previous school finally installed a kitchen and that was only because of the political pressure the superintendent had faced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru looked at many of the different ultimates performing and sighed. He really enjoyed Miu and felt like they were two peas in a pod. That didn’t change the fact that he had eyes or the fact that he had been born to find just about everyone attractive. He observed Kaede and Sayaka performing music together. He sighed as his mind wandered to lustful desires pertaining to the two girls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru wasn’t an idiot, he learned very quickly on how just about none of his peers were interested in the inner workings of his mind. Obviously he slipped up here and there, but who could really blame him being around boys and girls who could make anime characters feel envious. And those cartoons were drawn to give men and especially women unrealistic expectations no less!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru watched as Chiaki won another round of her smash brothers tournament leaving her three challengers all reacting sadly or angrily as the results. He turned his attention to Nagito who had entered the classroom blindfolded with bear traps, wet cement and a MISSING HOLE IN THE GROUND! As he naturally navigated his way to a haystack of lottery tickets, picked one out and blindfolded scratched some numbers off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He took off his blindfold and made his way out of the classroom set up for him. As he made his way past the cement one of the chairs snapped  and landed in the cement only to splash some on his shirt. “Just my luck!” Nagito seethed ,”This was my favorite shirt.” As he made his way out of the room. He handed the ticket to the teacher only to be told that yes, he had once again gotten the winning lottery ticket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito never ceased to amaze Teruteru, the fact that his luck was so magnificent that Hope’s Peak had to create a system with the lottery to only take a small percentage of the winnings and to only allow Nagito to participate in local lotteries was astounding. It didn’t matter that the school had found enough local lotteries so that Nagito never hit the same one twice in one year, his luck was consistent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He saw Tsumugi walk up to one of the stages, open an envelope and leave for a minute only to return as Clover from 999 so convincingly one wouldn’t know it was Tsumugi. Teruteru sighed again, many of his classmates overlooked the cosplayer, but she was an absolute beauty. How was Teruteru supposed to be a one woman man when he had temptation staring dangling in front of him constantly?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He imagined trying to only eat one dessert for the rest of his life while in a bakery. He cared for Miu, he really enjoyed her, but how was he supposed to be satisfied? Even the best desserts tasted stale when served again night after night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>11:22 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The class had finished their simulator as each person had taken their turn as the driver of the trolley. It was unsurprising to him as he chose to save the five instead of the one, of course a big part of that was who he had decided to impersonate today.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Twogami adjusted his glasses, one of his favorite pastimes was to impersonate Byakuya. The heir wouldn’t admit it, but Twogami could tell how moments here or there would cause Byakuya to pause. The heir could claim that Twogami was utterly incompetent at impersonating him, his body language, tone and semantics betrayed his words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Twogami smiled, other than the two detectives no one had figured out why he had been placed in the ethics class. He had acted mysterious and when Taka asserted he must be there because he could impersonate famous people Twogami played the part of someone who had been found out and graciously acknowledged defeat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t surprise him that the two people who were most trained to deal with micro-expressions realized how dangerous a person was who could know people better than they knew themselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To understand someone so well that he could impersonate them not only in their mannerisms but even their own unconscious defense mechanisms gave him a lot of power. Even Byakuya, one of the most psychologically resilient classmates, would crumble if Twogami decided to play on every insecurity the heir had. Knowing how Byakuya would implicitly defend himself gave Twogami the chance to take those abilities away from him. Twogami knew that he was a very dangerous man. He felt fortunate that he had no such desire to use his abilities in such a way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the programmers of the killing game simulation explained to him why they had to create limitations to his abilities he didn’t protest. It didn’t allow any of the other students in his class to understand how they would act in such dire situations when he could tell who was going to kill hours before the person in question knew it themselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Twogami and the others had the simulation restart this time with Toko in charge of the trolley. He noticed how uncomfortable she seemed with this. Not surprising, she was more comfortable in the world of the abstract, living vicariously through her creations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Twogami started to zone out about Ibuki, one could only do the trolley simulator so many times before it got repetitive. He thought about her boundless energy and how cute she was. He smiled, he really enjoyed the eccentric musician.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Crunch* Toko had at the last minute decided to run over the one person and unsurprisingly had fainted in the process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The class waited around as the teacher called in Mikan to revive her. The simulation had been programmed by previous programmers and Chihiro in conjunction with a neurologist. It was amazing, the simulation left no damage beyond small amounts of the psychological and the team at Hope’s Peak was incredible at vetting who carried even a small amount of trauma from the exercises. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The class groaned when they saw that it was Kokichi’s turn to steer the trolley. The boy had sparkles in his eyes as he talked about how as the supreme leader he didn’t want anyone who wasn’t smart enough to stay off the trolley tracks and that his goal was to run over all six people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Twogami’s attention drifted back to Ibuki. He felt a twinge of sadness as he thought about her. He expected to have a life of moving around constantly. Multiple Intelligence Agencies from different countries had reached out to him wanting to know what he wanted to do upon graduation. He knew his life would be a thankless job keeping the masses safe, but as such it would be a very lonely lifestyle. He didn’t want to have anyone who would have to stay at home with neither of them knowing if or when he would return from each task or mission.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He enjoyed others and especially enjoyed Ibuki, but he felt a certain obligation to live a solitary lifestyle. Settling for less, while being better for him personally could be the difference of lives being saved. He hated to admit it, but he was better at being honest with himself than most. If Ibuki were to find someone at the speed dating event he would be relieved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His attention was drawn back to the present as Kokichi had been passive on the trolley right before the fork in the tracks only to suddenly turn the wheel as far left as he could and cause the entire trolley to flip on it’s side. The entire class fell out of the trolley in the simulation as the trolley hit all six bystanders on the tracks.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Tuesday 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A dilemma I had when writing this was about the sexuality about certain characters. I searched what percent of the population is LBGTQ and according to Gallup it is at 5%. If I were to hold to that only 2 characters would be LBGTQ. That being said, certain characters Taka, Mahiru, Mondo, for example and a few others are being written as straight as my goal is to try to be closer to what research says while in canon certain characters orientations were more ambiguous. That being said about 16-20% of the characters are still LBGTQ and that is if we're only going by either straight or LBGTQ without using the Kinsey Scale.</p><p>I can understand if there are quite a few readers who disagree with this decision.</p><p>Another note, I have been posting pretty quickly. Good chance that will slow down as life is getting busier, but hopefully not.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>12:02 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wiped the sweat from his brow as he finished his round of grooming the animals. Gundham was slightly out of breath. Hope must have made a deal with the devil as it had facilities reminiscent of that of magic prowess. Gundham looked at his notes and noted that the macaroni penguins needed his attention after lunch. He commented to the four Dark Devas about different tasks he would want for them to do when their activities resumed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watched as several of his students quickly made their way out of the common area to go to the cafeteria seemingly ignoring their crafts as soon as they were able. This didn’t surprise him, most of them had come nowhere near to unlocking their full potential, they were still enamored by empty desires of their earthly vessels.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smiled as his eyes transfixed on his ally who continued to work their craft. Gundham had been relieved when he had met Gonta. Most of his classmates lacked the ability to see beyond superficial worries or what their earthly eyes revealed to them. Gonta, like Gundham, had learned to see beyond the veil of surface stimuli and in turn be enamored by the workings of things beyond usual human sight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham understood the entomologist. It was sad how foolish most humans were consumed by the anxieties of how they looked or others perceptions of them. If anything happened to disrupt the chain of command especially at the insect level those worries would seem quite foolish when humans started to starve to death. He shook his head as he thought about how many of his peers were more likely to post petty squabbles on their Instagram accounts than educate themselves about the increasing presence of hellfire onto their world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham refused to even think about food before his four faithful servants were cared for. He allocated out the ideal serving for each of his four Deva’s taking into account each of their preferences.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was strange how those around him seemed to deafen themselves from the supernatural. It was as if closing your eyes and covering your ears meant that nothing outside of them existed. He was thankful for his dark queen and his allies in Gonta and Hifumi. Even the craftsmen's damsel of manipulation could be good for a conversation though Gundham found Atua to be a pipe dream. At least Angie acknowledged and could see beyond the surface. It was disappointing how lacking in mana and energy Himiko was, he had expected more from a mage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham had finished his task leaving about forty minutes to eat, he had supplies for himself, but he wouldn’t mind going to the cafeteria either, they had a good vegan selection.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is Gundham done with his tasks?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham smiled at the gentle giant, “The dark lord never rests or tires, but if you were seeking sustenance I am happy to placate your earthly desires!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gonta looked at him confused. As great as Gonta was, he wasn’t the quickest at understanding Gundham.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham clarified, “Let us go get our substance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, okay” Gonta smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two made their way to the cafeteria. Gonta turned to Gundham, “Gonta is concerned about being a good gentleman for the speed dating, does Gundham have a plan?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham chuckled, “How very amusing, but do not fret my gentle ally. For the cares and worries of such trivialities are very much beneath me.” He was curious though if Gonta had any concerns or strategies, “And pray tell, does the gathering evoke preoccupation in you? What strategies are at your disposal?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gonta blinked, but seemed to at least understand the last question. “Chiaki was kind enough to invite Gonta to play some dating games to help Gonta be a gentleman.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Most amusing, very well! I accept your invitation for such festivities! When do the trials commence?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gonta smiled, “Gonta is very excited to spend more time with his friend! It is today at 5:00pm at Chiaki’s dorm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham nodded as Gonta held the door open for him, “Then you can expect The Overlord of Ice and his Dark Queen to grace your presence at that time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>1:03 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leon laid down in a pool chair. All of the athletes were encouraged to engage in each other’s activities, fortunately for him it wasn’t required. He enjoyed being active and the volleyball game from earlier was fun though it wasn’t really fair once his team simply hit the ball at Keebo over and over again. It made sense that the robot needed to engage in athletics to get more used to understanding human life. It just made it hard to make the teams balanced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He closed his eyes and thought about Friday. Ever since he had become a baseball sensation it had been pretty easy for him to get along with chicks. Most of the guys his age were anxious around girls, but acting like they (girls) were more scared than he was generally worked. Obviously he had his share of striking out too, he hated that his mind still jumped to baseball metaphors. Even though he had the hots for her since they started school he still hadn’t found a way to convince Sayaka to go out with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watched as Mukuro and Peko dived into the water together and started racing. Almost all of the girls here were smoking and Friday night would give him a chance to at least find one girl who would be interested in having fun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It would be nice to have something go his way. Despite trying to talk to the headmaster every other week the school continued to have him spend his days with the athletics group. He knew that all the higher ups were aware that Leon was more interested in music than his own talent. They didn’t seem to care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watched as Keebo and Ryoma jumped into the pool together with the smaller boy encouraging and helping the larger one. Nekomaru bellowed from the side of the pool as well trying to get Keebo to work on his technique only for the robot to sink soon after and Nekomaru dove in to retrieve him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knew that Ryoma was about as interested in his talent as Leon was in his, so at least the school was consistent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“None of you degenerates better check me out while I am swimming!” Tenko yelled at any boy within 50 feet of her. Leon rolled his eyes, the girl acted like the idea of sex was the worst thing that had ever existed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Man if any boy talked like her they would be ostracized.</span>
  </em>
  <span> To be fair he knew he wasn’t a man of virtue like Taka and the fact that someone told him not to do something made him want to do it even more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tenko and Sakura swam by and while pretending to look in another direction he made sure to check out the aikido master’s shapely ass. </span>
  <em>
    <span>As if none of us are going to want to look at you when you have an ass that looks that nice.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Enjoying the view?” Maki asked as Mondo and Ryoma jumped in the pool with Nekomaru training Keebo in the shallow area.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Uh-oh</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He put on his most winning smile “Oh hey Maki! I’m just relaxing here, are you planning to swim?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl didn’t smile in return, “Just be careful, I’m not the only one with perceptive eyes here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After she walked away Leon let out a sigh, he just wanted to be practicing music with ultimates he didn’t have to worry about fighting him if he angered them. He still had a bruise on his back from when Tenko threw him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He remembered her words. “Your form tells me that you’re used to everything going your way without having to try!” He grimaced. If he wanted to be psychoanalyzed he’d go see a therapist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He put on his shades, swimming was the rest of their day until 3, maybe he could take a nap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>1:55 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After lunch was always a bit easier as all of the ultimate took turns demonstrating their talents with the others getting to watch. Not only that, but it was an opportunity to talk to Hifumi or Tsumugi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat next to the portly fan-fiction writer as they watched as Junko demonstrated a winter attire that had what seemed like the entire media take photos of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I could do that too, but I’d need to cast most of my mana into a fashion spell and I have more important things to do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hifumi adjusted his glasses, “I wouldn’t expect anything less from a mage of your level.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Getting to perform her magic was alright, but most of what they went through at the school was a pain. Tenko constantly trying to spend time with her was a pain. Doing homework was a pain. The psychologist told her she had persistent depressive disorder, but Himiko felt like things were just too much work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I saw you signed up for speed dating.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nyeh?” She had been spacing out before taking in what he had said and sighed, “Oh yeah, Monokuma did a lottery and I got signed up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hifumi stroked his chin as Junko exited to her applause and Hiyoko had been told to start preparing to exhibit the dance she had been working on. “I think you’d enjoy talking to Gundham.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Himiko considered that as Hiyoko started her performance. Gundham seemed like he could be interesting to talk to though the two didn’t really ever have a reason to talk. They might have interacted a couple of times and the boy had acted strangely. They were in different classes and different pods of activities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at Hifumi, “Why didn’t you want to try speed dating?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hifumi smiled, “Nothing here can compare to the world of 2D.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Himiko nodded, maybe it was for a different reason, but she felt like she could relate to how most things seemed kind of stale, like watching a magic trick you already knew the solution to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The class saw the prompt that Hiyoko’s dance was going to end in five minutes and that Himiko was up next.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The mage stood up and went to the back to finish preparations. “Such a pain” she mumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>3:00 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kiyotaka breathed a sigh of relief. While most of his classmates loved the virtual simulator or at least found it interesting he found it to be exhausting. He thought about the killing games that he had partaken in. How with their memories being reset that as the moral compass he would meet with anyone who left him a note even if going anywhere by oneself in a killing game was quite dangerous. How of the killing games so far he had only survived once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The main thing that bothered him though, aside from when the game tricked him into being a murderer, was how some of his classmates had treated him. He heard the snickers of some of his lesser kind classmates commenting about when he should ask Mondo out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kiyotaka had expected that his classmates, if anyone, would understand how lonely it was being an ultimate. The first time he, Mondo and Chihiro became close he offered to do the other boys laundry and other chores for months. He had never felt accepted for who he was before. Despite being the moral compass almost no one wanted to associate with him at home between his strict following of the rules and of course his grandfather’s history.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He remembered how Kyoko had made her way to his dorm after the first simulation they had. In it  he told everyone they should die and let Mondo off the hook when he had been a blackened. Kyoko had told him that anyone who didn’t take into account how much Taka had craved a sense of connection he shouldn’t bother to listen to in the first place. Easier said than done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Some of the other students like Sakura, Aoi, Sayaka and Makoto also tried to encourage him. Even Hifumi had made an effort and this of course was not counting Chihiro and Mondo. Kyoko really stood out though, not only had she understood his wanting to feel connection, but was able to recognize just how anxious Taka was about a lot of things. She spoke about how hard it could be to make friends and how he must worry a lot about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka never even told Mondo how for the next few weeks after that he read through every detective book he could find so that he could learn the proper way to court Kyoko. No one had ever been as kind and empathetic to him before that. That was until he saw the beautiful detective before seeing her and Makoto holding hands. He was pretty sure he was straight, but perhaps he was so lonely that he would fall in love with anyone who empathized with him and didn’t judge him for his flaws.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka thought about his meeting with the school's psychologist. How apparently he had been two questions away from scoring on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. He thought about how hard it was to read people to the point that he felt really anxious when away from people he felt safe with. Sometimes he wondered if the test got it wrong or that he might have answered questions saying that he was better off than things were in reality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Difficulty with social cues? Check. Adherence to black and white thinking? Check-either you follow the rules or you don’t. Engaging in rigid behaviors? He certainly had been told he was too rigid more times than he could count. He felt very fortunate that he didn’t have any of the stimuli challenges such as the need for sensory stimulation, difficulty with communication, or having his senses either being too strong or weak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rules existed in the world for a reason. Placed by those who had wisdom from previous experiences and they helped keep things simple. Either someone was trying to follow the rules or not. One could demonstrate their virtue by such diligence. And yet, somehow as Taka become more and more adherent to the rules he classmates prior to Hope talked to him less and less.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had arrived at his dorm and was planning to go inside. He had an idea of which books he wanted to read first in order to prepare for Friday. He had spent yesterday reading through the preferences of his classmates, though he felt it would be easier to go shopping tomorrow as he could perhaps have Chihiro or Mondo go with him. Besides he still had the poker game he agreed to later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ex-excuse me T-Taka?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turned around and saw Toko looking at him. “Oh hi Toko, how can I help you?” He felt some anxiety welling up in his stomach. Toko was one his classmates he felt least comfortable with and while she wasn’t directly mean the way Junko, Byakuya or Celeste could be she also wasn’t particularly warm or friendly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“H-how are you p-planning to p-prepare for Friday? I t-thought you c-could use some help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was unexpected, though his philosophy was to always try to do the right thing and that meant accepting aid from someone who wanted to be helpful. Besides he had read some of her books and she seemed to understand the inner workings of attraction and affection though much more illicit than he was comfortable with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What, did you have in mind?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“W-well as someone w-who has written a lot on romance I-I’d like to help to see if I c-could help you be m-more comfortable with such conversations.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka mulled it over, “I am happy to try it, what time were you thinking?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The writer bit her thumb.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Biting nails is a very bad habit!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Taka refrained from commenting, commenting didn’t usually go well with Toko.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was thinking some time today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka pulled out his calendar and missed the writer rolling her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Today isn’t good, I believe I could be available from 6:30 sharp through 8 pm tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko thought out loud to herself, “T-that should work. Meet me at the l-library t-tomorrow then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka nodded “I will see you then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko walked off with Taka glancing at his calendar figuring out which of his other books to read summaries for. He doubted these could compare to getting advice from the ultimate author.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>3:12 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito walked towards his dorm. When class had gotten out he needed to stop and mention to Kaede and Sayaka how beautiful their duet performance was today.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I don’t know if the two of you notice, but I could see audience members' anxieties and worries simply melt away. You two were memorizing and people left with so much more hope in their eyes.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The two girls were appreciative, though it wasn’t surprising that their reactions had a hint of apprehension around him too. He knew he was off-putting towards others, he was very lucky to have Hajime, Chiaki, Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi in his life. Those four were his friends. Friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito thought about their last killing simulation when the game had turned up his feelings about Hope to make him an obsessed zealot willing to commit murder. He kind of envied that version of himself. That version of him had a clear goal. Eliminate all of the despairs. In that world his mission once he learned it was simple. In this one he had to reconsider each day what would be most hopeful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito wasn’t quite sure of what to make of his conditions. He had his terminal illnesses and yet how much would those actually affect him? Would he become miraculously healed? Would he simply live a very long life? Would he die tomorrow? He had no idea and with his talent it seemed nothing was certain until it actually happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito thought about the speed dating event this Friday and smiled. He knew how much a person could depend on having a partner in their life. He had heard about couples who had pushed each other to accomplish phenomenal tasks and with a pairing of ultimates he had a great amount of hope of what could be accomplished.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito couldn’t help but smile at the mention of the word. He knew how his peers thought of him. His favorites were Junko’s ‘hope slut’ comment and Kokichi’s ‘praise hope Jesus’ line. He didn’t mind, his classmates couldn’t relate because they all had been more fortunate than him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had been most disappointed with his interactions with Mukuro, he hadn’t realized to what extent the girl was a slave to her sister. He had hoped that the ultimate soldier would have integrated the survival rule of three into her psyche, but the girl ironically seemed to have more PTSD from her sister than all of her missions combined.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was funny, his classmates obviously would consider love, food, water, shelter, and air all essential. (3 months, weeks, days, hours and minutes respectively to survive without each of them) and yet almost none of them seemed to recognize how essential hope (3 seconds) was. And yet survivors everywhere considered it more important than the other items listed above.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smirked, he went to a school with geniuses and other geniuses that put those geniuses to shame and yet of all of his classmates almost none of them recognized the importance of what he talked about, with Angie of all people, being the most understanding of everyone. Of course this came with them disagreeing on what one needed to place their hope in. Nagito didn’t mind, he had been born with his talent; one much less helpful and impressive than the others. If there was anyone here not worth listening to it was him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had unconsciously started feeling his shirt only to have his attention drawn back to it as he felt something out of place. He looked down at his shirt with the dried cement on it. Sure he could win the lottery literally with his eyes closed, but it would be nice if the little things that he enjoyed could stay intact. It was rare for him to find a piece of clothing he liked that would survive for more than a month. Well, maybe for as far as his shirt was concerned today would be his lucky day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oof.” He hadn’t been looking where he was going and ran into someone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey watch where you’re-oh hey Nagito nice to see ya” Kazuichi smiled to him as he helped Nagito up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito beamed, “Kazuichi, I was hoping to run into you, you see-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that cement on your shirt?!” Kazuichi shook his head, “I wouldn’t believe what happened unless I saw it huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito smiled as he shook his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well let’s head to your room so you can get another shirt and I’ll see what I can do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was funny, everyone thought Nagito was ten times luckier than Makoto, but the other boy could buy a video game and not have it magically snap into two within the week. Nagito would trade his talent in a heartbeat. It wasn’t all bad though, Kazuichi and to a lesser extent Kirumi had been able to salvage many of his items and he was grateful for the two of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at Kazuichi as the two made their way to Nagito’s room. He did always say that he wanted a blonde girlfriend and while Nagito had never been attracted to women he knew almost everyone who was, found Kirumi extremely attractive.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I wonder how compatible the two of them would be.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>3:32 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How boring.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>As usual Junko was bored. Being the ultimate analyst was overrated, it wasn’t surprising that when they modeled Hajime’s simulation personality Izuru that her analyst skill was at the heart of that persona.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure she had been admitted as the ‘ultimate fashionista’, but everyone knew how intelligent she was. It wasn’t uncommon for Hope to pull her out of her classes to see to what extent she could look at economic trends. Considering her attorney got her a 20% share on any profits she made for the school she was already set for about 53 lifetimes. This of course was assuming her rates of return only matched that of an average financial advisor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While most of the other students found simulations fun that allowed them to persevere, like surviving World War Two Junko found the unexpected and tragic more interesting. She was thankful that she interacted with Nagito and Makoto, at least those two had talents that were much harder to predict.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>At least when I was the mastermind I could make things more interesting. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Most would say that Junko’s intelligence was a gift, but she would say it was also (if not moreso) a curse. She yawned, she had decided to leave her sister alone, at least for the moment, though her mood could change at any time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She knew how others felt about how she treated her sister, but she didn’t really care. Mukuro was essentially a human doll for her and it was nice to have someone that she could try things with or try experiments on. If she felt like today would be interesting to make someone unironically walk around in plaid and polka dots her sister could fit the bill and Junko wouldn’t have to worry about it affecting her fashion career.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Knock knock*</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Let’s see, Mukuro is most likely though she would want to avoid me, so I’ll say the headmaster probably needs me again, after him then Mukuro. After her I’d say Kokichi, Kyoko, Hiyoko, Sayaka or Byakuya in that order with everyone else being less than 2%. Oh wait, it has been a while since I’ve done laundry, I’ll put Kirumi at 10%.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She opened the door to see the person in question standing there biting her nail and shaking a little. She glanced at the ultimate writer.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Interesting.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>3:43</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi sighed, she had been looking for Gonta, but was having a hard time finding him. It was plain to see how surprising it was to be unable to find a mammoth of a man. She had seen what looked like him from afar, but when the subject in question bellowed the word ‘shit’ she knew that most certainly wasn’t Gonta.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced at her phone. </span>
  <em>
    <span>3:44pm</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She decided she would have to try to find him another day as she wanted to get dressed differently for the poker game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tsumugi, nice to see you here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She blushed a little when she heard that voice, “Oh hi Rantaro, nice to see you too.” No one could really blame her, most of the girls found Rantaro to be quite attractive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy ran his hand through his hair, “What’s bringing you over to our neck of the woods?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi smiled at him, “Oh...I was trying to find Gonta, he wanted help preparing for Friday and I was going to see if I could help him for a bit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rantaro shrugged, “Well I’m sorry to say I haven’t seen him, though that is quite nice of you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cosplayer blushed a little more, “Oh...it’s nothing really.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rantaro put his hand to his chin, “Yeah I’m trying to do the same for Ryoma. It would be nice to see them happy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi nodded, “Maybe we can plan something to try to help both of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rantaro smiled, “That sounds good to me, text me if you think of anything?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi nodded again, probably too eagerly, “Okay, I’ll let you know if I think of anything!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She could feel her heart racing and lamented as to how plain she was as she walked back to her place. As if someone like Rantaro would ever be interested in her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>4:08 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced at the other two girls working on their respective homework. One smiling as if everything in life was enjoyable, the other having a glazed over look.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh Himiko, what I wouldn’t give to see you happy, or angry, or just to feel anything!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Tenko could tell that her stress levels had risen since yesterday. Not only was the school having speed dating, but Himiko was going to be around degenerate males for three hours without Tenko being able to do anything about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh to feel so powerless, Tenko noticed today that when Mondo offered to give Hina a hand out of the pool that perhaps Tenko overdid it in her snapping at him. Mondo was loud, violent, and stubborn, but in terms of the degenerate department he wasn’t the worst. Okay, maybe he was actually decent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tenko had a hard time in this environment as most of the boys had little patience for her. She didn’t really care about what any of them thought, but most of the girls seemed to enjoy spending time around the boys, as such Tenko usually had only a few people she enjoyed hanging out with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, quite a few of the boys meant well. Taka, Makoto, Shuichi, Hajime, The Imposter, Keebo and Gonta all immediately came to her mind. She knew she was forgetting some of the others too. Oh and of course there was Chihiro. The headmaster had stepped in and told Tenko she needed to curb her behavior immediately when she didn’t react well to the fact that Chihiro was actually a boy. She felt a little bad about that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought about how she had been able to drop her habit of calling most of the boys degenerate and as far as she was concerned Teruteru and Leon deserved the label. However, since yesterday she had found herself using the term much more often.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at Himiko again with her beautiful red hair and gorgeous eyes. Tenko loved the mage with all of her heart. At times she wondered if she was as in love with her as she had been early on in their friendship as Himiko ignored her comments frequently. Tenko knew that the two could be really happy together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She noticed that she had been chewing on her pencil out of anxiety. She needed to prepare Himiko to be on her guard and not to fall for any of the tricks some of the boys might try. While she was relieved that many of the boys were upstanding individuals she thought about Leon, Teruteru and some of the other boys and shuddered. One way or another she was going to figure out how to make sure that Himiko wouldn’t be susceptible to any degenerate tricks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>4:37 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celeste looked around at her makeshift table and groaned internally. It wasn’t that she felt that having him there would make it less likely that she would win; it was simply the fact that he was obnoxious. Of course he wasn’t in the F rank like Teruteru would be without his cooking, but nevertheless Monokuma enjoyed trolling people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She examined each of her opponents as she had folded early this round. Despite playing with all of them before every game was different and different combinations of people evoked different reactions. Tsumugi was always one of the more surprising students in how surprisingly well she could play. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She heard that Tsumugi’s class reacted with surprise when the cosplayer had ended up being an extremely formidable mastermind. Celeste knew sooner or later Tsumugi would be picked and unlike most of Tsumugi’s class Celeste wasn’t surprised in the least at the blue hair girl’s ability at deception.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Read them and weep.” Hifumi proudly announced as he flipped over a 10 and 8 giving him two pairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Overconfident at the smallest signs of victory, head in the clouds, easy to snap his confidence.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I can’t read cause I’m a bear!” Monokuma remarked as the bear cocked his head as if he didn’t understand why Hifumi would say such a thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Sometimes I think they made Monokuma to be the ultimate troll. Harder to read, but unsurprisingly a very good poker player.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Monokuma laid down his cards, “Well would you look at that? My two queens make three of a kind! It’s beary nice of you to let me win so I can feel good about myself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Predictably Hifumi deflated.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That hand was for only a small amount of chips and we’ve barely started, Hifumi is so frail emotionally.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked over at Taka, predictably the boy was having a hard time. Byakuya had asked him more than once within their first few minutes of playing if he had a good hand with the prefect having a hard time not divulging the nature of his cards. Taka was in an unfortunate situation. Aside from Hifumi, everyone else could read all of his cues while the moral compass picked up on little to no clues of anyone else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next hand was dealt. Celeste saw that she had a decent, but not great hand in an ace and eight of different suits. She needed to see what everyone else thought of their hands. One didn’t become a poker player just by memorizing numbers, one had to learn how to read people quickly and accurately.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She scanned the room quickly. Byakuya's eyes had slightly squinted; he was interested in his hand. Taka was staring at his hand intently suggesting he was calculating probabilities, since it wasn’t a quick calculation he hand was middle of the pack, slightly worse than Celeste’s. Tsumugi stared ahead as usual, but without knowing her breathing was slightly faster, she was excited. Hifumi eyebrows creased in a look of sadness, he had nothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monokuma….Monokuma was bending over his chair as if he was mooning Taka! So repulsive. Celeste felt a twinge of rage well up before regaining her composure. Either way, Tsumugi and Byakuya’s hands were superior to hers, she was going to fold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing?! That behavior is not welcome in a school environment!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Psssh you took soooooo long to notice.” The bear whined, “I timed you and it took you two minutes and twenty seven seconds to notice. I could have made avocado toast in that time, well except that I’m a bear and can’t use a toaster.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celeste rubbed her temples, Kokichi was supposed to be here, at least he would make this more bearable. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I hate myself for using that pun.</span>
  </em>
  <span> This was going to be a very long and annoying game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>5:07</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chiaki smiled, it was nice to be able to spend time with friends while trying to help them at the same time. She had finished explaining the rules and glanced at her classmates. Fortunately the game was able to accommodate six players which was nice since six people ended showing up including herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She yawned, chronic fatigue syndrome and narcolepsy in one person was no joke. It was a good thing that games always provided enough mental stimulation to allow her to focus and feel energized.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hajime had filled her in about the speed dating event Friday and she was excited to see which of her friends would be able to find someone. She didn’t know the other classes as well, but she was feeling hopeful that Mikan, Mahiru, Kazuichi and the others could find someone who was a good fit for them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced at Gundham and Sonia. The two of them were able to find someone, why couldn’t the same apply for everyone else?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The screen finished showing them location spots where they each had to separately pick which spot was their favorite. The game was simple, but fun, it would allow them all to know each other and possibly think of questions to ask on their speed dating events. The game assigned assigned points as to who was their best match when other people picked the same answer as them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chaiki picked the five star hotel, what better place to play games? The results came in as the animation flipped over each of the six places to see what everyone picked. Hina picked the beach, unsurprising. Sonia picked the historical district. Gundham, Gonta and Sakura all picked the mountain retreat area. Interesting. She noticed Gundham give Sonia a look as the two had different answers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“With all of these choices it is pretty uncommon for two people to agree very often, I think.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hopefully that would help the two of them out, it was more important to enjoy the games being played and being able to learn from them than needing to achieve any particular result.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>5:34 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As a whole school was pretty boring. Most of the time it seemed the class lessons didn’t teach him anything. If Hope hadn’t been known for being so effective with future connections he might have dropped out as his time could be spent more efficiently elsewhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least he was able to find others who were smart enough to provide some entertainment. He looked at his chip pile, he almost was tied with Celeste though he had to admit that the girl knew her stuff when it came to gambling. Byakuya didn’t need to be the best at everything, but he certainly needed to be able to hold his own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In his world the strong ate the weak and this poker game proved to be no different. Hifumi had lost all of his chips twenty minutes ago and Kiyotaka was consulting a cheat-sheet he brought in order to decide whether to bet all of his chips this round or be forced to go all-in the next.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure if you look at that cheat sheet a little bit more it will really turn things around.” Kokichi jeered. He started to examine his fingernails, “It’s not like stepping away from your rules and actually noticing around you will help.” He smiled, “But maybe that’s a lie!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As annoying as he was at least he understood. One does not bring a book about how to interact with sharks when submerged into the depths of the ocean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone had folded except Kokichi and Taka with the latter considering whether or not to fold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Kokichi” Celeste started, “I can assure you that his cheat-sheet has the most accurate probabilities, surely it would be beneficial to keep using it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Byakuya felt relieved that Kokichi didn’t take the bait, he had enough of their liar games and was more interested in betting against the two of them, Monokuma, and surprisingly enough Tsumugi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka faltered, “Well from what I read-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“From what you read?!” The purple haired boy snapped at him, “From what you have read has lost you all of your chips! I am betting enough to force you to go all in. Now look at me! Read my body language, do I look like I have a good hand or not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka looked like a computer that was glitching before he took a deep breath and put down his notes. He looked directly at Kokichi and examined him for about twenty seconds. He sighed, “I’ll call, I am all in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two boys flipped over their cards with Taka having an 8 and a King while Kokichi had a 4 and a 6. Unsurprisingly Taka won the hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well I’ll be. Maybe his potential isn’t completely hopeless.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>5:58 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peko wasn’t sure that this was the best idea, but Fuyuhiko had insisted that this would be good for both Kazuichi and Mikan. Peko wasn’t in the habit of contradicting Fuyuhiko and as such the four of them were out for a ‘double date’.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well at least the food is delicious.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She took a bite of her mushroom stir-fry and savored the oyster sauce on the mushrooms with a hint of...garlic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked up and eyed the poor awkward duo who knew they were on a pseudo date. She appreciated the effort that Kazuichi had put into this, he had reassured Mikan countless times that he was happy to spend time with her though sadly it didn’t seem like the two shared too many interests.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Aside from mechanical work and medical work, what are their interests?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She got to learn that Kazuichi enjoyed video games and sports when he wasn’t being decimated by Akane or Nekomaru. She got to learn that Mikan enjoyed shopping. Now that she thought about it, the two of them didn’t seem particularly unique. Being an ultimate more or less seemed to pigeonhole many of her peers as one dimensional.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Become renowned for a talent and I guess it becomes your identity.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced at Fuyuhiko, her young master. For better or worse her swordsmanship was never the focal point for her, though when she heard some of the less agreeable students talk about </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>lack of identity she had to acknowledge there was some truth in it. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that her, Maki and Mukuro all seemed to lack the range of interests normal teenage girls would have.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Kazuichi I thought of another question you should ask her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fuyuhiko once again wanted to direct Kazuichi in what to do. Peko knew that the boy had a good heart, but sometimes he wanted to solve things so quickly he missed what would be best. Being a Yakuza heir he was used to giving orders more than he was at listening and as such some of his ideas weren’t the best. None of them needed to know that Mikan liked the idea of being tied up in a straitjacket when Fuyuhiko had the bright idea to ask them each what was something about them that others found weird.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi had buried his face in his sandwich perhaps wanting to escape from how awkward the whole thing was, but made eye contact with Fuyuhiko ready to ask the next question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys should talk about what school was like for each of you before attending Hope’s Peak.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Tuesday 6:00 PM - 12:00 AM</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Spoilers in the note:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When writing this I needed to balance to what extent things seemed exaggerated, for example Kirumi being the Prime Minister of Japan to things that should be kept in. With how V3 ended and reading the fanfic 16 x 3 it made me consider to what extent certain attributes wouldn't be canon as they were embellished for the sake of V3 and as such I decided that Kirumi and Kiyo would have certain changes. I felt those and a few other things could be better explained by the cast having their own personalities altered from times in a killing simulation.</p><p>That being said, I wasn't sure where to draw the line exactly and also have omitted Genocide Jack although even if the split personality existed a competent Hope's Peak would have recognized Toko's DID very quickly and taken appropriate measures. This is all to say that you are welcome to provide feedback (hopefully constructive criticisms as it's easier to improve with a "do this instead" than a "that's not good") as I am still learning how to be a better writer.</p><p>On another note Junko isn't a very nice person.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>6:31 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! Who the fuck picked Kirby?! I thought we agreed no one could be him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Man, this was the life. Kaito smiled as he dodged Ness’s fire attack.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Should have just reflected it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He and Mondo got along well and the biker had invited him to join a vintage Smash Brother’s Game of only the original 12 characters and original stages. He got to go to a school and continue to train to be an astronaut, make tons of friends, and get to date the best girl a man could ask for. Life was good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He ran up and kicked Kirby as it had swallowed Ness.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It’s obvious who Kirby is.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The four boys focused their attention on the screen. All of them enjoyed Chiaki, but they all wanted a chance to win, for once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Take that you piece of shit!”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Man, Mondo sure has a mouth on him when he gets mad. Can’t blame him though Leon had that coming.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The boys continued to play. Kaito loved all things pertaining to space and as such he had an advantage, the other three all played newer characters usually and Kaito almost always played as Starfox, the original space character. Soon enough Yasuhiro’s Ness and Mondo’s Captain Falcon were eliminated leaving Kaito able to dodge and parry Leon before winning the match.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, now that I think about it you always play as Fox, maybe you should be someone else.” Yasuhiro suggested, “He has too much speed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Too much speed….too speed….speed…...Speed!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito sat upright, “That’s it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leon gave him a confused look, “What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You guys are all speed dating right?! Who are you all going for?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The three other boys looked at each other. Mondo was the first to break the silence, “Can’t we just play the game? This isn’t that important.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito could feel the fire in his eyes as he slammed his fist and the very soft and comfortable couch next to him, “No! This is absolutely important, we’re all bros right! But what if two bros want the same girl? We need to make sure that isn’t the case right now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other three boys collectively sighed. All of them could be stubborn, but Kaito was in a league of his own when something riled him up. They figured that must have been how he had eventually won Maki over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yasuhiro gave a half-smile, “Honestly, man, I signed up for the food.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leon gave him a look of confusion and frustration, “Dude we have a cafeteria, what do you need food for?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yasuhiro responded defensively, “But like, it’s a fancy event so it should be like extra good food.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leon rolled his eyes, “Like Teruteru wouldn’t make something for you if you asked him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito had enough talk about food, “I don’t care about food, you’re speed dating now and you need to be a gentleman, who are you going to go for?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The clairvoyant looked at him with a blank expression, “Ummm...well…..” he racked his brain, “Hina’s doing it right? Yeah, Hina.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Yasuhiro, so disappointing, man.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito gave him an appraising look, “Tell me six of the girls who are doing the speed dating.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yasuhiro gave him an anxious look, “Aw man.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Typical” Kaito spat and then held his hand in a fist, “You get the opportunity to talk to twelve of the really cute girls and you can’t even be bothered to learn anything about them. What type of man are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yasuhiro held his hands up, “Alright, alright, I’ll, uh, look into it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito gave him a nod of approval and turned his attention to Mondo. “I know you wouldn’t take this lightly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo looked down, “It’s not that, it’s just, well I don’t really stay in one place for very long.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito understood where the biker was coming from, he must have moved around a lot before coming to Hope. He had a feeling Mondo wasn’t being completely honest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You sure there isn’t anyone you’re interested in?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The biker looked away, “Well, Mikan is always really nice to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito gave him a thumbs up before turning his attention to Leon. Leon was an interesting case. They hung out, but where Kaito wanted to work more and more to become an astronaut Leon seemed content on riding his talent. Yasuhiro practiced his craft even if he wasn’t great at it, Ryoma who had a disinterest in his talent still recognized the importance of practicing, Leon seemed the laziest of all of the ultimates in that regard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leon, what about you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The baseball star had his arms behind his head in a relaxed position. “What? Isn’t it obvious?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other three boys glanced at each other blankly before Yasuhiro cocked his head, “Wait, is Kanon in the speed dating thing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A vein pulsed in Leon’s head, “What?! That’s stupid! I mean Sayaka!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other three boys glanced at each other again before Kaito took the lead on this one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bro I’m not sure that should be seen as a given.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leon waved him off, “Look I have had lots of experience with girls and I know what I’m doing you don’t need to worry about me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaito gave him a look before sighing, “Well if you say so. Anyways….you guys up for round 2?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>6:55 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He took a deep breath. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can do this. I want to be strong.</span>
  </em>
  <span> *knock knock* he waited and waited, no answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at the next door. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can do this.</span>
  </em>
  <span> *knock knock* no answer again.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This is so nerve racking. What if they just laugh at me? No, they aren’t going to do that. Mondo and Taka want me to push myself, I can do this.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He gave up on Hina or Sakura being at their dorm rooms, but he had one more option. He went to the next door. *knock knock*</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door opened, “Oh, Chihiro, hi! What’s up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The programmer could feel himself shaking a little. His level of anxiety could be debilitating. If he had tried this months ago before he became friends with Mondo and Taka he wouldn’t have even made it out of his own dorm room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“H-hi Sayaka, I, I was wondering if you could help me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The popstar gave him an inquisitive look, “I don’t know very much about computer programming.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No it’s not that it’s-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I’m happy to help you with the speed dating thing for Friday.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How does she always do that?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at her, “If it isn’t too much to ask.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled at him, “I’d be happy to help you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! T-thank you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gestured for him to go into her room as she pulled two of her chairs near each other to sit and talk. “So, let’s get started!”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What? </span>
  </em>
  <span>“G-get started, I’m not sure w-what you mean.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well if I am going to help you I need to see how you talk to girls.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chihiro gulped. Sayaka had been able to persevere in a talent that could be extremely cutthroat. It wasn’t a surprise that she felt confident in putting herself out there.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t know if I can do this.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He felt a hand touch the top of his. He felt some electricity and looked into a pair of really pretty blue eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think Taka and Mondo would be really proud of how brave you’re being, you can do this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chihiro took a breath and smiled, “Okay….Hi Sayaka, how are you today?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>7:03 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was always nice to be able to fulfill the requests of others. Kirumi smiled as she put the finishing touches on Yasuhiro’s tuxedo. She had finished three of her four tasks and Kazuichi had recently dropped off the alloy needed for Keebo’s suit. Kirumi had managed to do this while fulfilling other requests like laundry and tending to her own studies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Knock knock*</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hmmm I wonder what the request will be this time.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi opened the door and started to feel goosebumps, standing right there was someone who never came to see her. She quickly regained her composure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh hi Junko, is there anything I can help you with?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko gave her a wide smile, “On the contrary Kirumi I was hoping I could help you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi bowed, “I can assure you I am fine, I enjoy being the ultimate maid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko started playing with her hair, “Well you see, that’s like, the problem. I worry about you Kirumi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>My breathing has become more rapid, I feel anxious around her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can assure you, you have nothing to worry about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what worries me most,” Junko continued as if she didn’t hear Kirumi, “Is your martyr complex. Even Kiyotaka will accept help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Junko, let me be clear-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And like, I guess being the ultimate maid can do a good job of masking your fear of failure because as long as you’re solving others problems you can’t ever really fail.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi could feel herself starting to feel angry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Junko I-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And the volunteering for the speed dating thing because others need you. Like, gosh Kirumi, you might want to look into the book, Codependent No More.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Junko please let me-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But hey I get it, you know you're like the opposite of Kazuichi. He would put Sonia on a pedestal. You on the other hand, you put yourself there so that way you don’t have to deal with daily things like the rest of us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She’s not letting me talk</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Junko!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess I just never realized how selfish it is, to avoid living for one’s self.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She’s wrong!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s completely wrong!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fashionista looked surprised, “Oh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am acting...to serve others purely from an altruistic-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The model started examining her nails, “Whatever helps you sleep at night. I guess as long as you don’t mind making every other girl here insecure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Huh? </span>
  </em>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko asked in a cutesy voice, “Oh you didn’t notice? You didn’t notice how every other girl is actually human instead of a mom who will serve.” Junko made an airquote and made her voice more husky “Any request.” She sighed, “For being so serving she sure has no problem being completely unrelatable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi could feel her mouth starting to become dry. “Junko, I-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other girl patted her arm causing Kirumi to flinch, “So as I was saying, I worry about you. Because until you start doing things you want purely for you, it’s only a matter of time before everyone around you either starts to devalue you or resent you.” She made her way to the door, “So do me a favor, this Friday stop being a martyr and pick the boy who you, Kirumi Tojo actually like; that is if any personality has survived since you probably won’t even let yourself take a dump without feeling guilty for wasting time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“JUNKO HOW-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko made a peace sign and smiled, “Okay? Goodnight!” And closed the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi stood there for a few seconds before realizing she was shaking. She had no idea what she had done to deserve that, she went over and locked her door. She turned out the lights and sat in silence as tears of anger streamed down her face.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>8:57 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took out her phone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <span>Can’t make it tonight, I have something else to do</span>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She waited, she knew it wouldn’t have to be long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <span>Maki Roll are you trying to ditch training again</span>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <span>She had blocked emojis on her phone because of him.</span>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <span>Just trust me youd want me to skip training if you knew</span>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <span>What is it?</span>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <span>I don’t want to tell you just trust me</span>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span class="u">
    <span>Well…...okay….I believe in you</span>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled. Sure he was an idiot, but he was her idiot and he trusted her. Maki expected most people around her to want to keep tabs on her being the ultimate assassin and all, but something Kaito knew how to do was give her space. She really appreciated that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made her way to the ultimate labs. She thought about Mukuro’s test earlier about how for whatever reason Junko seemed interested in something else. Maki wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth here was a chance to help her friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maki was glad to have become acquaintances with Mukuro and Peko. Her classmates were too emotional and it was nice to have a couple people she was better able to relate to. She thought about previous work assignments. It was funny, ninety percent of the time she could find the hothead liability simply by looking for the man in whatever group she had to work with that would claim women couldn’t control their emotions. As usual the people around her projected their own failings on to others. Fine by her, it made her work much easier knowing how to trigger people emotionally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made her way into Peko’s lab. The two nodded at each other and briefly talked about their days. Apparently Mikan had more trauma in her life than Peko had anticipated.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, that isn’t that surprising.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The two heard (a noise no one else would) the sound of Mukuro approaching and the three sat around a small table with Peko pouring Cinnamon Tea for the other two. They all sat in silence for a bit sipping their tea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know where to begin.” The soldier acknowledged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine” Peko responded, “We need to start by finding your interests.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maki continued, “You’ve been under your sister’s thumb for so long you haven’t had time to find what you like, in a sense she trained you to be a soldier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mukuro nodded, “So where do I start?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other two girls looked at each other with Maki nodding to Peko to give her the go ahead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What caused you to have a crush on Makoto? What did you like about him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:13 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had finished getting ready for the evening. She really had been waiting to add some evening shots to her portfolio and tonight was the night.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Good thing I took that nap earlier today.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She made her way out of her dorm. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What a nice night. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She walked towards the quad area wanting to get shots of Hope’s Peak when no one was around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made her way to the different locations she had preselected and started getting to work. She knew she wouldn’t be satisfied with her work, but it seemed that everyone else enjoyed it.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I guess it is what it is.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought about her mom and wondered if she ever would think her work was anywhere near to the same level as her mom’s. She sighed, others complimented her work and asked her for photos all the time, but it was hard not to feel inadequate knowing how much better her work could be. Where others saw perfection Mahiru would notice a problem with the angle or lighting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She made her way to the boys dorm as she set up to take shots of the area. She heard two voices. She couldn’t make out who, but she saw a taller boy and shorter boy sitting on a bench talking to each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t pay any attention to them, sure they would notice her camera work, but that didn’t matter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Click* </span>
  <em>
    <span>Need to do that one again </span>
  </em>
  <span>*Click* </span>
  <em>
    <span>And again,</span>
  </em>
  <span> after about fifty shots she decided that she would have enough photos that one should be good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She started to focus on the next spot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Meow*</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Is that a cat?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She turned to see where the noise was coming from and saw that the cat was at the bench with the two boys.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There’s only one boy now, is the other one scared of cats?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She made her way over to get a better view and saw the other boy return. It looked like he had food and the two boys started to feed the cat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru aimed her camera and started taking pictures of them. Eventually Ryoma picked up the cat and inspected it, while petting it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t have a tag, I think we should take it to Gundham’s lab and let him deal with it tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Korekiyo looked at him, “May I join you? I am enjoying our conversation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shorter boy nodded. The two made their way to Mahiru and stopped. Ryoma glanced at her, “You’re welcome to join us if you’d like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru considered it, “I’m okay, It’s late and I think I have enough of what I need.” Her phone buzzed and saw that Hiyoko was texting her asking how her photoshoot went.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kiyo smiled, “Well we don’t want to keep you from Hiyoko, I’m sure it’s best not to ignore her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s none of your business. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Mahiru crossed her arms, “I don’t need you snooping on my conversation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy put his hand in front of his face, “My apologies, based on your dynamic I only assumed-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My dynamic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! I had assumed you needed to react to her due how domineering she can be. I do not mean to be offensive I can relat-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru pointed at him, “You know it’s quite ungentlemanly to stick your nose in others' business. I don’t need you judging her when you don’t know anything about her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Heh.” Ryoma smirked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru could feel her blood boil, “Is something funny?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s just funny to hear you tell us we need to know Hiyoko better. Seems like that doesn’t stop you from calling people like Kaito, Kazuichi and some of the other boys unreliable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know about Kaito’s family life and what he has had to overcome? Do you know about what Kazuichi dealt with in school?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Kazuichi dealt with in school? </span>
  </em>
  <span>“That’s-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shorter boy took of his beany and looked down, “Look, I have no right telling others how to act, I know I don’t have anything to offer-”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s...that’s not true</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“My point is a lot of the ultimates here have been through a lot, you can see it in how they walk. Yourself included. If you want us to be more understanding of Hiyoko, which is fair, please do the same. I’m not trying to be mean, I have a long way to go myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru understood the boys weren’t trying to be mean, but she had enough. Without a word she made her way past the boys back to her own room.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What a crappy night.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t respond to Hiyoko’s text and instead went straight to bed where it took a considerable amount of time before she fell asleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>11:01 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monokuma giggled as he adjusted his chart. “Monomi are you keeping up? We had some spicy interactions today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monomi pouted, “It’s not right making a chart of their relationships. This isn’t a game, these are people with hopes and dreams.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monokuma paused and then pointed to the whiteboard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Contests won this year, Monokuma: 37 Monomi: 1 (Winner of saddest mascot)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monomi bowed her head in sadness and then walked over to some of the supplies and started filling out her chart.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Wednesday 7:00 AM - 1:00 PM</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>7:13 am</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He must have bought a new shampoo since his hair had a hint of coconut. Usually he smelled more like berries.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He probably lost the old one.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko smiled, she and Makoto were heading to breakfast together where as usual he waited outside for her from the girl’s dorm so they could go together. She glanced at him and noticed that her heart still continued to slightly race even though they had been together for months.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I guess it does take two years on average to move past the infatuation stage.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought about Makoto and his talent. Most of their peers were confused as Makoto seemed rather unlucky, but Kyoko knew better. Makoto, having been ‘an average teenager’ for most of his life not only was selected to be at a prestigious school, with the top students of their respective fields, but could hold his own in the classroom with them. Makoto had excellent points in their ethics class and was extremely bright.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Most teenage boys Kyoko had known wanted instant gratification. They wanted to be really smart and really personable and yet they would rather spend all their time playing video games than reading books or going out of their way to meet new people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Makoto though wasn’t content on skating by. Since being accepted into Hope he took his work seriously and spent most of his afternoons reading and studying. Kyoko wasn’t surprised, one of the things that attracted her to him was that despite being laid back Makoto was fairly serious and responsible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey what are you thinking about?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced over to see his really cute face smiling at her. It was amazing how his smile could still cause her to feel butterflies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She blushed a little, “Oh, just thinking about how lucky I am to be with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Makoto’s face turned a light shade of red as his smile became even happier. “I thought I was the lucky one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She poked him, “I think we agreed to disagree on that one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two made their way into the cafeteria and split up to start gathering the food they wanted for breakfast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko stopped by the fruit section. She had read that blueberries helped cognitive function and considering her job was all about cognition she wanted to make sure she was primed to be successful. It amazed her to see some of the other ultimates try to live off of cereal, candy and ice cream.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>If I ate like Hiyoko I’d be in a bad mood a lot too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She waved to Shuichi who unsurprisingly had quickly started to emulate her diet soon after they had met. She made her way to grab some greek yogurt as she saw Kirumi making parfait cups. She bid the maid good morning which Kirumi smiled at and reciprocated.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Something is off. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko couldn’t put her finger on it, but something seemed to affect Kirumi. Suddenly she noticed the maid twitch. A normal person wouldn’t notice, but Kyoko recognized that the involuntary twitch was that of a reflex, a flinch. She looked over to Kirumi’s line of sight and narrowed her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Of course. It’s always Junko isn’t it?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The fashionista had entered having been carried on Mukuro’s back with the former then nagging the ladder for being so slow. It wasn’t too surprising, every killing game they had simulated Junko had killed someone, usually Mukuro even when she was the mastermind and supposed to not kill. The girl was chaotic and if something had interested her in Kirumi she would have fun toying with her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something had happened between Kirumi and Junko and Kyoko was going to get to the bottom of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>8:03 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t surprised when the class reacted positively that today was their turn in the simulator. Personally, he felt the same. If nothing else he would have plenty of time to work on his art. It was amazing how the simulator could have their brains experience weeks worth of info in several class hours.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unsurprisingly he was told to fetch her stuff and even more unsurprisingly he obeyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who do you think will be the mastermind this time?” The fashionista asked Celeste.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was interesting. Hifumi wasn’t sure if Junko liked anyone, but if she did Celeste would be in the A tier, with Kokichi and Kokichi alone being in the S tier. He didn't understand the fashionista's relationship with her sister. Mukuro seemed to be an S rank and F rank sometimes seconds apart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmmm...there are a lot of possibilities, but hopefully it isn’t Yasuhiro, the game will be over in a day. You were a terrifying effective mastermind by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko smiled, “It was nice, it was like, the least bored I felt in weeks. Not going to lie, I was disappointed in your performance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celeste played with her hair, “Don’t remind me; it was a pathetic showing. I still don’t know why on earth I’d work to incapacitate the most useless student and the shell-shocked one from grief when two other students who would be much better targets were left alone.” She continued, “And don’t even get me started on the atrociousness of the plan itself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko gave her a peace sign, “I mean next to Togami and Kyoko you have the best survival rate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Celeste smiled, “True, though I imagine you’d have the best score in that, if you bothered to live.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko shrugged, “It’s more fun this way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hifumi was used to feeling like a fly in a room. Despite Celeste often requiring his work she rarely interacted with him. He felt like he could relate to Mukuro. In a sense they both were the Chocobo’s of their masters. Help them get to where they need to be, but otherwise be seen and unheard like an item stored in a questing party’s supply. He didn’t mind, he was content to keep to himself other than hanging out with Tsumugi or Gundham from time to time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His track record in the killing game simulations were poor, but he wasn’t the worst either. With any luck he would do well today also. Whoever the mastermind was they couldn’t be worse to survive than the last three of Toko (who was surprisingly the scariest of the three), Junko and Kyoko.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I wonder how long I will live this time.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>8:04 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Class days were the worst. She had to sit in a desk all day where it was really hard to move. Her ass had been itching for the last two minutes and it wasn’t like she could stand up and scratch it. Even worse she couldn’t work on her inventions. Maybe worst of all was the fact that she was with a bunch of fucking idiots.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Today the teacher was having them learn more about economics with them planning to practice trying to simulate the stock market. Their teacher had changed the names of the companies and they didn’t know what years they were going to work with. They also didn’t know what country they were going to simulate either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaede raised her hand wanting to ask a question. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Typical, what does Kaeidiot want now? Look at her, all excited to ask her stupid question.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Miu had a headache, it didn’t help that today should finally be the last day she would experience cramps. One time Kirumi had suggested to her that a more balanced diet might help her menstrual cycle. Miu told her to mind her own fucking business.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Miu thought about Teruteru and how she wished they were in her room doing who knew what. Half of her recent inventions seemed to be made to spice up their love life one way or another. Miu thought about their conversation on Monday. They had never defined what they were, not that Miu cared or anything. Yep, she definitely didn’t care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked around the room to see Angie, Himiko and Kirumi as the other girls in the contest. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Yeah like Teruteru wants to date crazy, mopey, or uptighty.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>For a split second she had a thought that perhaps she was worried that he wanted someone else or that he didn’t want to be her boyfriend after all. This thought lasted only for a second though, Miu caught it and realized she was being an idiot. He wasn’t her boyfriend and there was no problem here. The idea that anyone could turn down her with the body she had was a joke. She felt stupid for worrying the first place….she hoped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:13 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Akane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nekomaru</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peko</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fuyuhiko</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nagito</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hajime</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chiaki</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sonia</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Imposter</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mikan</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hiyoko</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki watched as the teacher put their names into a random team generator. They were going to have to work through a choose your own adventure of surviving on an island, creating a society, establishing an economy and education system.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki thought about the time that she performed at a concert in Greenland chanting ‘down with society.’ She then thought about the band System of a Down and how she felt the song ‘Chop Suey’ was overrated. She then thought about how everyone loved pancakes, but to her those were overrated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turned to Mikan, “Ibuki thinks pancakes are overrated.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki thought about how she had been diagnosed with ADHD as a kid. Apparently she was more hyperactive than inattentive. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Attentive-antenna. Ibuki should totally wear an antenna hairstyle soon! </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Her brain eventually returned to what she was thinking about before about how childhood was fun. She had a lot of energy, but she made do. The results came in and she saw that she would be working with Hajime, Chiaki and Nekomaru.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were all nice so they should make a good team. She was pleasantly surprised by how well Hajime and Chiaki were doing. Initially she thought the two had no chemistry, but something seemed to have drawn them together, though of all the couples they seemed the most flat.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Flat-did Ibuki already think about how overrated pancakes are?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at the names of the other groups. Teruteru, Akane, Hiyoko, Fuyuhiko. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That group will probably die in a week if Fuyuhiko doesn’t kill them all.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Gundham, The Imposter, Peko, Nagito. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They should do well</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sonia, Kazuichi, Mahiru, Mikan. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They should do really well.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>It was interesting, for a few weeks now Kazuichi had no longer bothered Sonia constantly. She looked at the group. It seemed like Mikan and Kazuichi would glance at each other and look away.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ibuki wonders what happened here.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She considered the possibilities but decided she should probably check with Mikan before blurting out that Kazuichi probably got the girl pregnant. Sometimes it was hard having so much restraint.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>12:11 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Something was off, it’s not like you can expect to grow up with someone your whole life, start dating them and expect them not to notice. Peko was too quiet, even for her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“So are you going to tell me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her pretty red eyes drifted back to meet his and he felt his stomach slightly tighten. “Tell you what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know what, but it’s something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can assure you, I am fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fuyuhiko sighed, “Peko, I fucking have to tell you this like every week. We’re in a relationship now that means we relate to each other. It means when you have a problem, you tell me you have a problem.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peko nodded, “Very well, I think the way we tried to help Kazuichi and Mikan yesterday didn’t help either of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That wasn’t we, that was me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you’re saying you think what I did, didn’t help them. It’s not like they could think of things to talk about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked away. She continued to look away. He sighed. He had been more annoyed than he meant to be. He was better than before, but his temper could flare up. He had enough relatives and employees of the family to know that hotheads usually didn’t last very long in his line of business. Getting his temper under control would determine his lifespan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you tell me why you think what I did wasn’t helpful?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They kept looking at each other and looking away, I think both feel really uncomfortable around each other now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you want me to stop helping them? I mean Kazuichi is one of my best friends, I certainly want to help him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe we can help him differently.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The gangster shrugged, “What did you have in mind?”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Wednesday 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>1:02 PM</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fortunately this killing game ended sooner, though it wasn’t particularly surprising. Hifumi had made a decent mastermind, but his tendency to enjoy his own creations ultimately gave him away. When he let slip that he enjoyed Monokuma’s design (since in this version he was the creator) it didn’t take long for the most perceptive students to find him out. Still he had managed to maintain three weeks worth of the simulation and got through three trails.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was interesting though, the girl reflected, some of her classmates seemed to be a little different. Chihiro wasn’t as timid and he seemed more friendly with Sayaka than she had remembered. Taka also was slightly different, he still was a prefect, but during the second trial he acknowledged how rules couldn’t solve everything and that at times one needed to think on their feet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The image of Gonta flashed in her mind, before bringing herself back to her reflections of the killing game. Despite meditating every morning, Sakura could still find that her mind would drift from time to time. She was familiar with Gonta as he participated in plenty of athletic activities however she hadn’t had the opportunity to get a chance to see just how nice he was. What was most surprising though was how at the end of the game that Chiaki had hosted she and Gonta had won. They scored better than Gundham and Sonia and also better than Hina and Sakura herself, it was strange to have their scores be so compatible.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She watched as the students who had killed or gotten killed were escorted to the school’s psychiatric unit for the routine testing and EMDR processing as needed. She looked over at Hina to see that the girl had a glum expression on her face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sakura loved her friend, Hope wouldn’t have been half as enjoyable without Hina and she thought about the girl and how she felt inadequate around boys. Sakura thought about the speed dating event this Friday. They had purchased their outfits and studied the preferences the boys had as possible conversation topics.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She thought about how last week in athletics she had noticed Hina briefly frown in the mirror when looking at herself before turning to Sakura and putting a big smile on her face. She knew the other girl felt insecure about herself. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sakura had hoped initially that Hina and Makoto would hit it off, but unsurprisingly the boy in their class who was most thoughtful, listened, and not meek was quickly sought after by some of her more assertive classmates. It was too bad, while plenty of boys considered themselves ‘nice’ Makoto actually was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I imagine she is still lacking confidence in knowing how to converse.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She looked around the room. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t think any of the boys here are in a mental state to be of much help currently. Maybe tomorrow I can see if any of the kinder, athletic boys would be interested in helping her practice.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She would discuss these ideas with Hina later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>2:43 pm</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>According to his calculations Alectia had a 63.4% chance to increase in value over the next 6 months based on previous trends. However, considering that he only had a rudimentary program for data analysis with an emphasis on economics on what seemed to be the 1920’s in (54% chance Denmark, 32% Norway, 14% other north-eastern european countries) he wasn’t confident.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked at the scoreboard for the class</span>
</p><ol>
<li><span> Kokichi</span></li>
<li><span> Kirumi</span></li>
<li><span> Shuichi</span></li>
<li><span> Korekiyo</span></li>
<li><span> Keebo</span></li>
</ol>
<p>
  <span>……..</span>
</p><ol>
<li><span> Himiko</span></li>
<li><span> Tenko</span></li>
<li><span> Gonta</span></li>
<li><span> Miu</span></li>
<li><span> Kaito</span></li>
</ol>
<p>
  <span>As he had spent more time around his classmates it was interesting to see how their personalities seemed to compliment their strategies. His program had a recent factoid about the United States as to how people who bought generic S&amp;P 500 shares typically outperformed people who hired others to actively manage their money. Going into this the two most confident people assuming they could beat the market were Miu and Kaito.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was strange though. Himiko bought all of her shares at the start with as much diversity as possible and since then had taken a long nap. She still was beating four of the others. He glanced over to see Gonta working with Kokichi.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So you think Gonta should sell all of his furniture stock and invest in ice cream?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kokichi’s eyes sparkled, “Well yeah Gonta! Clearly this is in a cold country which means they have plenty of ice, their expenses have got to be tiny!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Keebo didn’t understand why Kokichi offered such advice when all the data Keebo had consumed said that diversification was ideal. He had asked Shuichi his thoughts with the detective informing the robot that Kokichi was trying to see if he could get Gonta a lower score than Miu and Kaito.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the fuck do you mean that the computer processing plant is going under?!?!” Miu exclaimed as their day ticker changed to the next month. Their simulation jumped a month every five minutes allowing them to simulate 6 years during their class lesson today.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Miu, we don’t know what year this is.” Kaede tried to reason with her, “For all we know computers don’t become popular for another decade at least.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>According to my calculations it will take about 57 years for them to become popular.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up bitch tits, no one asked your opinion! It’s not my fault this country is full of morons.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Taking into account the Flynn Effect, this country has about a three point advantage compared to a world population in terms of IQ, albeit I do not have data on IQ scores from before 1992 in what I believe is the country we are participating in.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Angie’s score jumped Keebo’s as the artist smiled serenely before announcing she wanted to sell some stock.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Interesting, she seemed to time something appropriately.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Angie, if I may, how did you know that stock was going to rise.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Angie smiled at him, “Well it’s a flower and gift shop and I noticed that every December the gift shops increase in value because of romance.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe I should ask her about what she is doing to prepare for this Friday.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Keebo prepared to ask Angie about this and realized that he was feeling anxious. “Um Angie, what are you doing to prepare for Friday in terms of how to have conversations with your future dates?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you looking for advice on what to do Friday?!” Kaito had apparently overheard them, “Man I totally can help you out with that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Back up prejack, if anyone is going to help Keebo it’s me!” Miu declared.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I have studied many cultures courting rituals. I believe I would be best to assist you.” Korekiyo asserted</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Keebo most definitely should not get advice from a degenerate, I will help him.” Tenko announced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kokichi’s eyes sparkled, “Oh my gosh you totally should have Tenko help you. You’re already so good at not getting the hint!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s robophobic.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Pretty soon the entire class was arguing as to who would be the best fit for helping Keebo prepare for this Friday before the bell rang and their attention was directed back to the scoreboard revealing the timeline, country and events that they had worked through.</span>
</p><ol>
<li><span> Gonta</span></li>
<li><span> Kirumi</span></li>
<li><span> Shuichi</span></li>
<li><span> Kokichi</span></li>
<li><span> Keebo</span></li>
</ol>
<p>
  <span>“Wow Gonta!” Tsumugi beamed, “How did you know that the country we were in was going to hit their worst heat wave in a century during the summer?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>3:02 pm</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You can put me down now!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was nice to see that he hadn’t lost any of his speed from when he was in his best shape. Although based on how hard he was breathing he certainly wasn’t in good shape now. To be fair he never had to carry a robot before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was grateful. When he made his executive decision that letting Keebo be influenced by the likes of Miu or Kokichi was unacceptable he decided that it would be best to get Keebo away from everyone before finding people who could actually give the robot good advice. It was funny, usually he was passive and content with letting people figure things out on their own, but for whatever today he actually felt like he had a small hint of motivation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was grateful that when he whispered to Rantaro his plan the boy nodded without question and helped shield him as he grabbed Keebo. Keebo felt like 200lbs, had Ryoma had to go any further he probably would have torn a muscle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He pulled out his phone quickly and texted Rantaro.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At Gundham’s lab can you message “        “, “        “, and “          “ to see if they can help Keebo with dating tell them to keep it on the DL also</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He put down his phone and faced the understandably frustrated robot.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ryoma, that is very unlike you, I do not believe humans consider it acceptable to have someone simply pick them up and move them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryoma nodded towards Keebo, he couldn’t blame the robot for feeling miffed at his actions. “Keebo, I apologize, but I think many of those in our class would have offered you bad advice. Would you like the advice of people who have proven to be thoughtful, know how to talk to women, and be good teachers?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Keebo looked down, “I guess I had assumed most of my classmates could have some pertinent information.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryoma patted the robot's arm, “When I was learning to play tennis after I had demonstrated my talent I had scouts from all over the country try to recruit me. All of them were certain that their way would help me. At first I thought that if I talked to all of them I would improve right? After all the more information the better.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Keebo nodded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not only did I not improve, but I became worse. I almost lost my school scholarship. What happened was that by trying to listen to everyone I didn’t do anything well. Serve with more power, more spin, some back spin, a different angle, change my form. It was overwhelming.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryoma rubbed the back of his neck. “Finally I sought out one of the scouts who had originally talked to me about how overwhelming this was and that I needed someone who would try to learn who I was and work around that instead of any particular technique. I only worked with her from that point on and that’s when I started to excel.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Keebo looked down, “So you think if I were to try to listen to everyone I would have too much information to consider.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryoma smiled at him, “You’ve got it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The robot looked at him, “So who did you have in mind?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On cue two of three people Ryoma had asked for walked in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey Ryoma, you were hoping we could talk to Keebo about dating advice?” Hajime asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Makoto put a finger to his cheek with an uncertain expression, “Are you sure we’re the best people for this?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryoma smiled, “Without a doubt. Thank you both for being available.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The tennis player then let the two boys start talking to Keebo as he made his way to visit his cat friend he had met last night. Maybe it was the fact that he could start to visit a cat that he found, but Ryoma was surprised to notice that he was smiling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>3:12 pm</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Just her rotten luck. She looked down at her DS. She had tried to put it back together herself. She hadn’t been paying attention and when those two boys ran (well one was carrying the other) she had stepped back, dropped her DS and the system cracked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was unfortunate, her petite stature made it a lot harder for her to be able to accomplish things and as such she had to rely on others more often. It was embarrassing how long it had taken her to be able to tie her own Kimono and due to her still being one of the tiniest students there were still days she’d need help.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I hate being weak.</span>
  </em>
  <span> And yet, at this moment she knew she needed to rely on one of the weaker students as well. </span>
  <em>
    <span>At least he isn’t the worst, he has some backbone unlike Mikan.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Naturally when Ryoma and Keebo had run by their class everyone’s attention had turned to them. Somehow within a minute Mikan had tripped. Hiyoko had to use all of her willpower not to call the pigslut what she was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In Hiyoko’s world one either became stronger and self-sufficient or weaker, becoming incapable of handling anything on one’s own. It amazed her how no one else seemed particularly bothered that Mikan would literally use anything to get attention even as to showing off her own body.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The first time she had called Mikan pigslut the headmaster had told her she should consider therapy. The second time it had become required for her to give it a shot. After attending once and not returning Jin had told her she had to attend when she called Kazuichi a hopeless idiot. The third time she called Mikan pig barf Jin told her she had a choice. She could attend therapy as often as her therapist recommended even if that was multiple times a week or she could transfer to another school.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Considering what her family would do to her if she left Hope it wasn’t actually a choice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She had for the most part learned to refrain from extremely harsh statements for everyone, but to see Mikan desperately do anything to get attention was disgusting. Especially when the nurse seemed to predictably do her antics just about anytime she felt insecure.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She made her way to the boys dorm, if Fuyuhiko was around she’d have to especially be mindful of her tongue, even her watered down insults were enough to cause him to react. She found his room. *Knock knock*</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He opened the door, “Oh hey Hiyoko” The mechanic asked a little warily, “What’s up?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>3:53 pm</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could tell something was off. Having become an ultimate team manager at such a young age, he had to be able to tell when those around him were in the zone and when they weren’t. It was funny, as reckless as Akane was, she by far had the most resilience he had ever seen. Nothing ever phased her. Of course, she was at Teruteru’s stuffing her face, but he knew she’d make up for it later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the meantime he had found some of the other students that he had worked with in the past as all of them seemed to have something off about them. Leon, unsurprisingly, had declined his offer, but getting four out of the five there wasn’t bad.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay, does everyone have their protective gear?” He asked in his booming voice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We don’t need protective gear to spare.” Tenko protested as she faced off against Sakura. “Maybe those two do, gesturing to the two boys, but Sakura and I are professionals.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru had a brief dilemma here. His goal was always to work with his athletes where they were at and he felt direct confrontation to be barely useful. While having a fiery coach or counselor made for good TV those personalities rarely worked. At the same time, she often would belittle others simply for being male and he needed his athletes to know that he had control and wouldn’t let anyone feel excluded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a shame, he could understand how Tenko could develop her attitude towards men. Her assessment of men being degenerates in many cases was accurate however she seemed to have (or someone she learned from had) fought monsters for so long that she had turned into one herself. She wasn’t the first person he had met who had that mindset towards men that as a whole she found to be oppressive, sexist, discriminating, and she certainly wouldn’t be the last either.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As the team manager though, he had the benefit of working with a diverse group of individuals and the vast majority of people were good from all genders, races and orientations with bad apples being in every bunch.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Even the greatest athletes can have their livelihoods ended in an instant if unlucky enough. This isn’t some anime where someone can get punched in the face and be back to normal eight hours later. Concussions have serious consequences, even death.” Nekomaru countered handing her the sparing gear, “There is a difference between being confident and arrogant and while you are no doubt an exceptional athlete, I will not have anyone taking unnecessary risks under my supervision.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Aikido master gave him a doleful look, but complied. That was enough for him. He was glad these four complied all four of them had a different aura to them than they had a week ago. One of the reasons he had been more willing to let Leon slide </span>
  <em>
    <span>again</span>
  </em>
  <span> was because like Akane his mood was consistent. Nekomaru wasn’t sure if that was a good thing though.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The four started going through sparring motions and he made his way to Mondo and Taka first. He enjoyed their dynamic, friends and rivals at the same time. He always felt that the rivals who were also great friends were better than rivals who were bitter to each other. Like Federer and Nadal these two were liable to compete against each other and at any opportunity with each other.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was happy for the two to have their bond, though he was especially happy for Taka. The boy had a tremendous drive and yet he had been incredibly lonely upon arriving at school. Despite having the heart of a lion, no one was able to see past the boy’s marriage to the law, that is until arriving here.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He focused on Taka. “Taka your stance is different, it seems like you’re less….consistent.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two boys took a break as Taka faced him, “I am trying to become better at reading my opponent.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Good, I’ve been working on that for weeks.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Glad to hear it, but you need to know what you are looking for. The same is true in relationships. Try to retain every article written on interaction and you’ll get overwhelmed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru thought about the book “Choke” how athletes suffered when they had to think through things.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Taka, do you trust yourself?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The other boy clenched his fist with determination “Of course, I always do what I can in order to do what is right!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And let’s pretend you didn’t know the rules to something and had no way of knowing. Do you trust that you have a good heart and will do your best?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru put his hand on Taka’s shoulder, “Taka you have a pure heart, but sometimes I wonder if you know that. It seems like you’d feel naked without rules to follow.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Taka protested, “But order and rules are foundational-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Order and rules are foundational because of the people who implement them. A rule is only as good as the person behind it. I know you hate labels that place too much emphasis on innate talent, but if you continue avoiding such thoughts like the plague you will freeze up the instant something doesn’t align with your preconceived notions.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good luck, I’ve been telling him that for months.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru faced the taller boy. “And interestingly enough it seems like you are being more deliberate today. Usually your strategy is more freestyle.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mondo awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “Well, maybe I need to take things a little more seriously.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>What is going on with these two? I’ve been telling them these things for weeks and both were in the pre-contemplation stage of change the whole time. Why have they suddenly moved past that all the way to the action phase?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru nodded, “I know you lived in a world that demanded constant improvisation. You have tremendous talent and it is nice to see that you are supplementing that with some strategy. You keep that up and you’ll be unstoppable."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He made his way to the two girls as they sparred. Both had something off, but Tenko especially seemed out of balance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tenko your form is off, something seems to be bothering you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tenko glared at him, “I don’t need your advice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru inwardly sighed, “Tenko, we both know that isn’t advice, it’s commenting on something you probably already know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tenko paused the training, “I…..”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sakura intervened, “Perhaps you’d be more comfortable talking to me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tenko considered the proposal, “It’s fine. I’m just frustrated. Nekomaru, as far as dengerates go, you’ve been a gentleman. It’s just Himiko and Angie are holed up in Angie’s lab as she’s working on something and Himiko doesn’t want any advice for Friday.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru wanted to be careful here. Tenko had come a long way in her consideration of him. He needed to be empathetic without sounding patronizing yet challenging at the same time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re worried about her ability to manage Friday.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tenko rolled her eyes, “Of course. She’s going to be surrounded by twelve degenerates….well okay, Taka, Mondo, Chihiro, Gonta, Keebo are all really nice. And I am sure I am forgetting someone, but still!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru pondered her concern, “Do you trust Himiko?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course! Himiko is great, she is smart, funny-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So Tenko I’m confused. She has all these great qualities, but you don’t trust that she can’t handle degenerates. She seems to put up with Kokichi all the time.” He wanted to clarify, “To be clear, this isn’t a critique of any sort, you have one of the kindest most well-meaning hearts of anyone I know when it comes to helping their friends.” He rubbed the back of his head, “Do you remember the butterfly cocoon metaphor?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well….I…..” Tenko thought about his question. “I just want to make sure she is prepared.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sakura added to the conversation, “You do not think she is currently capable.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tenko paused, “Well, I...I’ll think about it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nekomaru turned to Sakura, “You seem different too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If he hadn’t trained her for so long he probably wouldn’t have noticed, but something was slightly off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There’s something slightly different for you Sakura, but I can’t put my finger on it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She furrowed her brow, “I will meditate on this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was strange, if anything she seemed slightly….happier.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Wednesday 4:30 pm - 12:00 am</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>4:45 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaede had finished her performance and while it wasn’t her best she felt that it was the best she was going to accomplish today. She was performing early next week in front of people and she wanted to make sure she was adequately prepared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She left her room and saw that Sayaka and Ibuki were both still in session and she decided she would wait for the two of them. She wanted to know how each of them were doing with the speed dating two days away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaede closed her eyes as she waited. She liked people and in turn it made it much easier for her to like people. Other girls had derided her in the past for finding multiple boys (and occasionally girls) cute. Being able to see what was attractive about most people was both a blessing and a curse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She really enjoyed getting to know people better and almost everyone she met at Hope had something compelling about them. Mondo’s gruff yet caring persona, Kiyotaka stringent, yet underneath it, pure heart, Chihiro’s desire to hang out with the other two boys and be more like them. She could find a reason she would enjoy having 15 minutes with just about each boy and she was sure the girls would all look amazing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her mind drifted to Shuichi. Smart, kind, sensitive, strong, determined. She was glad she acted so quickly in making her intentions known with him. Shuichi was a catch and she was lucky to have him. She was happy with him. It was simply unfortunate that being with him didn’t make anyone else any less attractive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my my! She fell asleep with her shoes on, that totally means Ibuki gets to draw on her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ibuki, I am not asleep. And if you try to draw on me I will fight you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The musician giggled, “When Ibuki fights she fights dirty.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s not too surprising. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaede opened her eyes and stood up. The two girls talked about their respective practices and as the two made their way over to see what Sayaka was doing. The other girl saw the two of them, held up one finger, turned off a couple of things and motioned them in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The three girls quickly discussed their respective music pieces and how they were feeling about performing them before Kaede brought up the topic about speed dating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So how are you two feeling about Friday?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sayaka smiled, “I think it should be pretty fun, I look forward to getting to know some of the guys from your classes better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not your own class?” Kaede asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sayaka looked to the side, “Well, I kind of know all of them better, but there are a couple that I think would be really nice to spend time with.” She paused, “What about you Ibuki?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki smiled, “Ibuki is excited to get to have a nice meal and be around twelve sharply dressed boys.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I can never tell what is going on with her and The Imposter.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaede’s nose crinkled, “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, I thought you and The Imposter were a thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sayaka nodded in her agreement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki smiled, “Ibuki doesn’t try to think about it too much. We’re having fun, but we haven’t discussed anything serious either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaede looked at her friend. Ibuki seemed perfectly content with her situation, but Kaede wasn’t too sure. She knew she wouldn’t be able to relate. Despite being attracted to people easily Kaede knew she was monogamous at heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sayaka looked at her phone. “Hey I need to get going.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki eyed her, “Booty call?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sayaka paled a little, “No! Chihiro asked me to help him prepare for Friday so I’m helping him become more comfortable with talking to me so he can talk to everyone else too!” She shook her head at Ibuki, “I’ll see you guys later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The other two girls watched her go. Sayaka always managed to look pretty. Kaede was lost in her own thoughts wondering how each of her friends would do Friday before she was interrupted by Ibuki looking at her and telling her something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re totally going to do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>5:23 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hajime made his way back to his dorm. He had finished helping Keebo before making his way to Teruteru’s lab. The chef had told his class he would be practicing his craft today. Unsurprisingly Akane had been there from 3:01 pm and was still there eating what had to be her 13th pie.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She better not get injured, she’ll get diabetes in a year if she stops working out.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hajime considered whether to stop at his dorm room or to make his way over to the girls dorm. Dating Chiaki was….interesting. If he had a dollar everytime he left for an hour only for her not to notice he could probably take the two of them out to dinner. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighed, he loved Chiaki. She was gentle, sweet, thoughtful, used logic (which surprisingly was rare at his school) while at the same time she was so content by herself it was hard to know to what extent she yearned for their relationship. Hajime thought back to when their class first started. Despite being the ‘reserve student’ he noticed that Mikan and Mahiru both tended to blush around him. He thought of Chiaki. He had made the right choice. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I think.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He had been spacing out and didn’t notice her until he heard the click noise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh hey Mahiru how’s it going?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl took a couple more shots before lowering her lens and facing him and smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh hey Hajime.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two caught up and talked about what each of them were doing. Mahiru approved of Hajime and Makoto being the ones to talk to Keebo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m glad Ryoma did that, the last thing I’d want is for Keebo to learn some really unreliable habits.” She paused, “Especially when they won’t even own up to it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s oddly specific.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did Kazuichi do something this time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She folded her arms, “No. It’s...he didn’t do anything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He half smiled at her, “Want to talk about it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t say anything which considering her ability to tell him to mind his own business seemed to suggest yes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sat down at a nearby bench with her telling him about her interaction with Ryoma and Korekiyo the previous night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So they were completely out of line.” she looked at him, “Right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hesitated. He had learned about some of the background some of his friends like Kazuichi had and he knew that he had been through a lot. Unfortunately for him his omission of agreement to her…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her expression hardened “So you agree with them, then.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held his hands up, “No, it’s not like that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stood and put her hands on her hips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look” he continued, “Obviously a bad past doesn’t give people the excuse to be jerks.” He paused, “I’m just saying, it’s not like you’re the only one who has had to deal with unreliable people growing up.” He wasn’t a fan of being put on the spot, but at this point he felt used to it, Nagito loved to ask what his opinion was in their classes. “For the record, pretty much every time you call out someone for being unreliable you’re not wrong.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat back down, “But you also think that if I knew some of our friends better I might have more sympathy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Well, some of them anyways.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She considered his words. “I’ll think about it.” She pointed to him, “And of course I don’t need to mention that this stays between us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held up his hands, “Of course.” he smiled, “And Mahiru, uh, I hope you have a good time Friday. If any of the guys end up being someone you want to get to know more, they’ll be very lucky.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled at him, “Thanks Hajime…..do you ever….well nevermind, I’ll see you later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watched her go for a bit. He had meant every word. If she hit it off with someone Friday whoever it was would be quite lucky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>6:02 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The water always felt so nice on her skin. Long ago swimming had become a meditation for her. When Sakura meditated Hina had given it a try a couple of times, but it couldn’t compare to how she felt when swimming by herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hina felt lonely, she wanted a boyfriend and up to this point she had been unsuccessful with that. Her first and only kiss was during a game of truth or dare and she had held hands with a boy (who wasn’t her brother) once. She was a top athlete and yet she felt completely out of her element for what waited for her Friday.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just wanted to feel like she had some luck in the relationship department. If anyone else was with her she doubted they would notice that Sakura was acting differently, but she noticed that her friend seemed happier as she and Gonta continued to have similar answers. Hina was happy for her friend, but sad that she couldn’t have some prospect to feel excited about.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Just focus on the swimming.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hina visualized herself crossing a finish line and focused on the feeling of each sensation between the movement of her hands, arms, legs and feet. She was always at her best when she felt like she was part of the water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually she finished her training and stood at the edge of the pool as she started to dry herself off with her towel. She went to the locker room and looked in the mirror. Her friends told her she looked great. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So why then have I never been asked out?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighed, “I just wish I had some advice to help me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rise and shine ursine!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monokubs all appeared in the locker room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ahhhh” Hina screamed as she hastily covered herself with a towel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We heard that you needed some help for Friday.” Monophanie sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They were definitely not who I had in mind for help. Also, I thought they were at a robotics competition.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey aren’t you all supposed to be in Washington D.C. right now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We was there, but Monokid decided he needed to destroy his rival guitarist robot,” Monosuke added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monophanie hung her head in shame “And we got disqualified.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That robot had it coming” Monokid asserted, “He was even more annoying than Monodam!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monotaro put his hand to his head, “I forgot why we even went in the first place.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hina sighed, “Well guys it’s been fun, but I need-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait!” Monophanie cried, “We’re here to bear some good advice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Youse gotta make sure they’re really smart.” Monosuke advised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And really nice.” Monophanie added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monotaro raised his paw, “They should have a good memory, if you don’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And be really good at being able to give him a rock hard rager!” Monokid shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ew, he’s as bad, no he’s worse than Teruteru.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The bears started arguing over the fact that Hina was a girl before they all told her to consider their advice. “So long, bear well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the kubs remained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hina stooped down to look at the least annoying kub, “Monodam, did you want to add something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YOU ALREADY HAVE MANY GREAT QUALITIES.  FIND SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE AND CAN ENJOY YOU FOR THAT. MAKE SURE TO DO THE SAME FOR THAT PERSON. THEN YOU CAN GET ALONG.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s not….nearly as bad.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled at him, “Thanks Monodam, I appreciate the advice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bear silently disappeared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hina huffed to herself, “Well, maybe I can work on asking good ice breaker questions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>6:35 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Knock knock*</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I wonder who that is.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi put down her thread as she had finished all of the tasks she had been asked to do and now she was working on making her own dress. She wanted to make something stylish and at the same time something that wasn't intimidating. I need to serve everyone which means making a dress just nice enough to compliment myself, but to help accentuate the nice clothes all the other girls will be wearing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She felt a slight bit of tension before opening the door. She had a fear that Junko would be on the other side, but the thought was so quick she didn’t even register it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Kyoko.” She smiled, “How can I best assist you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko gave her a smile, “Good evening Kirumi, I appreciate you always being willing to help, you see I am trying to solve a mystery.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi responded thoughtfully, “I must confess I would assume that Shuichi would be a better choice to assist in that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko played with her hair, “Oh well you see, this is a mystery that pertains to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh? </span>
  </em>
  <span>“Oh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes and I know you prefer to keep things to yourself, however Kirumi I believe someone might be bullying you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How does she….well I guess she is the ultimate detective</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bullying me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes and your hesitation suggests I struck a chord.” She looked at Kirumi, “Kirumi I wouldn’t ask and I would respect your privacy, however because I think the one who bullied you isn’t to be trifled with I want to offer my assistance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi looked down unsure, Kyoko continued, “Think of it as serving me in helping me try to solve yet another puzzle.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirumi nodded, “Very well, here is what happened.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>6:59 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being the ultimate adventure sure made it easy to be restless. Rantaro smiled, he was appreciative of the fact that he had gotten into Hope’s Peak. Almost all of his assignments were out and about something that he rarely got to experience in his previous schools. It was hard for him to sit still as he enjoyed moving. Maybe it was having twelve sisters in the house, but he was always on the go. Having to play house, needing to help move dolls, pretending to be a tour guide as they would build a fort.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rantaro walked around Hope’s Peak, he was appreciative as to how much they allowed him to continue exploring the world and they were generous in their balance of having him explore close areas versus other countries or continents. He enjoyed the fact that Hajime, Makoto or other students in the field class could accompany him as long as it made sense for their talent. Even then there was wiggle room, like how he was able to take Korekiyo with him to different museums.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He enjoyed being around the campus at night; it allowed him to see the school more so for the architecture. He enjoyed pondering how many people had met the love of their life or had persevered through terrible news walking the same path he was currently walking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aimlessly he walked around the campus. He had walked by several of the students more likely to be out at night waving to Yasuhiro, Toko (who didn’t respond) and Celeste all at different points. Eventually he stopped as he noticed someone sitting at a bench by herself lost in thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good evening Sonia, I don’t mean to bother you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled at him, “Oh sorry I was spacing out. Please.” She gestured to the spot on the bench next to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rantaro joined her, “You were deep in thought, what’s going on?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The princess looked down, “Oh, it is nothing, simply just pondering on the nature of human beings.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rantaro had enough conversations with his sisters to know when one of them was bothered by something. The thinking about something pertaining to humans usually meant feeling sad about what someone close to them, sometimes Rantaro himself, had done. The question was to what extent he should pry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Human beings sure can be complicated.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, and I guess I am finding out more and more being here. How what one says can be so different as to how they act when out of their element.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ah</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She continued, “But I digress, I thank you for your time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smiled, “No problem, I’m always happy to hear whatever it is that you are pondering. You have a goodnight Sonia.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You too Rantaro.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He got up and walked away. Being the ultimate adventurer he was used to sensing when others were noticing him. He quickly glanced back and saw her look away, she had been checking him out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>7:00 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, if nothing else he is consistent.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko hadn’t needed long to pick out her book. The one about the soldier falling for the handmaiden that worked diligently for his estate after he came home injured. This was the perfect book to help Taka appreciate the potential for a relationship between two honorable and upright people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She attempted to put on her most winning smile as he approached her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good evening Toko, thank you for being so willing to help me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“N-no problem, I-I t-thought this book would be g-good for you, it-it is about a c-character I think you would find r-relatable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Taka mused on it with a slight frown.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What’s wrong he should be happy to have such a resource from me. Is he ungrateful? No, I need to cool it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-Is something wrong?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at her with surprise, “I apologize, I’ve just, I’ve been told I need to read less and react more.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Think, think, think. Wait, I got it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“T-That’s actually what the c-character you relate t-to struggles with too. H-He’s a soldier w-who has to l-learn to n-notice what’s around him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy considerably brightened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This could be perfect for me!” He took the book and bowed, “Thank you Toko I will read it by Friday and let you know what I think.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled and nodded before he walked off.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Perfect.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>9:03 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had been lucky. Junko had considerably left her alone outside of school hours. Today Kokichi had asked her to go downtown with him to see what mayhem they could cause. She shuddered, usually whatever they tried eventually would make its way to her. At least she could relax in the meantime.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She focused on the task at hand and felt a pang of anxiety. She had asked for their help, but it didn’t make it any less nerve racking at times. It was funny, be told to eliminate a target? No problem. Be told to achieve great feats of pushing herself to the limit? No problem. Sit across from a boy and be able to have an enjoyable conversation? What did it say about her that she felt more comfortable in mortal danger than she did trying to find a way to connect with Kazuichi?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We understand that this isn’t easy for either of you and that is why we’re here to help.” Maki noted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course this is awkward for both of you, that isn’t the point. The point is that deep down we know that both of you are kind and that each of you have plenty to offer.” Peko added “We don’t expect the two of you to fall in love, but we think each of you can find someone this Friday who might be a good fit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maki smiled, well at least for Maki, “Each of you have had to work past anxiety in the past. We believe the two of you can do it again. Peko will be available to whisper any advice to you Kazuichi and I will do the same with Mukuro. We aren’t going to tell you what to do, but we are here if you want the help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The impromptu couple stared at each other for a bit before Kazuichi broke the ice. “So what’s the deal with you and your sister?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How much does he want to know, well let’s see how he handles this.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“We grew up in terrible conditions and were even homeless at one point. All we had were each other.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy put his hand to his face in surprise, “Those were really tough conditions, is that what made you the ultimate soldier?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mukuro shrugged, “I was always good at that, I won a survival game in elementary school and started writing for military magazines.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi whistled, “So you were a natural from the get go?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mukuro nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>………………</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi started to fidget.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>………………</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He opened his mouth, “So what-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold it.” Maki held her hand out, “Mukuro, can we discuss something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mukuro inwardly sighed, “Why not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She got up and the two girls talked in hushed tones.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re going to have to make more of an effort.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mukuro looked downward, “I don’t think I’d ever have a chance to meet someone I could connect with.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maki looked at her, “The same could be said for Peko or myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mukuro put her hand to her chin in thought, “Well, neither of you have Junko.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maki put her hand on Mukuro’s shoulder, “If you find a boy that you can relate to, I can assure you that Peko and I will not leave you alone to deal with that. We will recruit others who would be sympathetic to your cause.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mukuro offered a small smile. She was lucky to have these two in her life even if she doubted to what extent they could back that up.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What the hell.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat back down and faced Kazuichi, “I’ve found in order to be an ultimate one usually is gifted at their task at an early age. Can you tell me about how you become the ultimate mechanic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:01 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Life was always more fun when shaking things up. He looked over at his partner in crime.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We sure got a good haul, you sure all of these are accurate?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smirked, “I am the ultimate fashionista, trust me, I can see a single thread and know what it is that they are wearing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The supreme leader looked in his bag of male underwear. “I like Mondo’s style with the whole tiger thing going.” He paused, “What are we going to do for Gundham?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko waved him off, “Oh please, the boy speaks like he was stuck on a boat with Edgar Allen Poe for the year and hides behind grandiose words to hide his insecurities, that’s why I got this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pulled out a pink thong with a smiley face on it. I’m sure having to state how this is </span>
  <span>not</span>
  <span> his underwear will fluster him enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kokichi laughed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Junko sometimes you make me wish I was straight </span>
  </em>
  <span>“So I was thinking we should give Kee-boys underwear to everyone and maybe only Miu’s underwear to someone like Gonta, what do you think?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko stood like a teacher, “Kokichi it is most imperative that we strategically give underwear to cause maximum despair, as of now I am thinking it is best to monitor their progress to cause maximum embarrassment once we identify who each person likes the most.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two continued to talk and laugh as they made their way to his lab to set up their task for Friday.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:11pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Father! We’re back!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monokubs swarmed Monokuma while only Monophanie also greeted Monomi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monokuma turned to them, “You’re just in time to fill out the brackets, we need to determine what happens to whoever does the worst.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Send them to the scrapheap.” Monokid yelled, “Then we can be rid of Monodam forever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We could make them have to personally apologize to everyone.” Monosuke pondered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“THEY HAVE TO PUT THEIR CHART IN PUBLIC VIEW SO THEY CAN BE SHAMED.” Monodam surprisingly announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oooohhhh that’s a good idea” Monokuma smiled, “Why can’t you all be more like your brother.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monokid glared at Monodam, but the five cubs began to get to work.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are we doing again?” asked Monotaro, “Can I copy someone?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:34 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Korekiyo returned from his walk. While he felt like he could imagine what his sister would think in almost any situation he had noticed that for the first time in what felt like a week he hadn’t thought about that. He smiled, he felt like he was finally starting to feel completely like his own person.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His sister had caused so much trauma and rage, it took him a while to remember how kind and gentle he had been before her illness. He walked past Ryoma’s door. He smiled, the other boy must have fallen asleep early tonight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Korekiyo worried about his friend. He felt like he could relate to Ryoma in that both had been dealt very harsh hands. Korekiyo thought about all of the tales he had studied of those burdened who still were able to overcome such burdens. Maybe there was hope for Ryoma. Maybe there was even hope for Kiyo. He got to his room and looked at the mask he had worn for a very long time.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe it’s time to stop hiding.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Thursday 7 AM - 12 PM</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>7:15 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were three great loves in life. Family, women and food. Teruteru inhaled the savory smell of fresh garlic coating the pan as he started to pour scrambled eggs into it. He enjoyed his spot where he was able to cook while converse with anyone who came by wanting something made for them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at the different eggs dishes he had made with pride. Some more savory, some more healthy, he was happy to have something that everyone could enjoy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good morning Leon” he said as the baseball star came over and looked at the different omelettes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Morning Teruteru” Leon smiled, “Everything looks amazing as usual.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru looked over and saw the group of Mikan, Ibuki, Mahiru and Hiyoko. He really liked the pants Ibuki wore and how they complimented her figure. That reminded him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Leon, how you feeling about tomorrow? You figuring out the best way to woo the different ladies?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leon waved him off, “Nah, I’ve been through this before, I’m confident that I’ll do just fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Is he not going to put in any effort?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“But Leon, even the greatest chefs make sure to brush up on their knowledge of the different ingredients compatibilities.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leon’s mood turned sour, “Man you’re like the fifteenth person to say that, look I know what I am doing.” He left in a huff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo soon made his way over, “Sup Teruteru, these look great as always.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great is the bare minimum from the ultimate chef, how are you feeling about tomorrow?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi had made his way over and heard the question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mondo paused, “Well I’ve been reading up on the different talents the girls have so I can ask them more about that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi smiled, “Yeah I have been doing the same, wouldn’t want them to think I don’t take them seriously.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru nodded in approval as Mondo grabbed a dish while Kazuichi continued to look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru made her way over and looked through some of the options.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi turned to her, “Hey today’s your performance day right? Good luck with that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It must be someone's performance day today.” Teruteru added, “They’re having me go to field today, not that I mind, but that means someone must be doing something different. I’m sure the photos will be awesome.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru nodded, “Thanks you two, yeah Angie and I are at performance today.” She grabbed an omelette, “I’ll see you two later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teruteru was glad to have a field day. He loved having days of performing, but he also loved having a chance to refine his recipes. Today he was going to work on a lamb chop dish where he was going to try to vary the amount of onion he used in the sauce. Everyone, but Gundham would be happy to deal with his leftovers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Between today and then tomorrow it seemed like all good things were awaiting him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>8:34 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shuichi felt a little more nervous than he had the last time he had ethics. The reason was pretty simple. Kokichi loved to cause trouble; he especially loved to cause it whenever Keebo was part of their ethics class. The Imposter and Makoto had rotated to different classes and today Keebo and Hajime were here instead. As the teacher had announced the simulation it was predictable that Kokichi would suggest a time period that didn’t have killer robots. Keebo, as usual, took the bait.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tension was higher in the room. Shuichi glanced around. Kyoko cast glances at Kirumi every so often. That wasn’t too surprising, from time to time Kyoko would seem to focus on someone, what was interesting was that the maid was also getting glances from Toko and Taka. Toko also would glance at Taka as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Some of his classmates, Fuyuhiko and Byakuya were consistent, as always. Sonia seemed a little less enthusiastic and Kiyo seemed less…..Shuichi wasn’t sure what it was, but it was something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Toko made the least sense, she was reclusive and wasn’t connected to the speed dating tomorrow either as a participant or significant other of a participant.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe it would be worth checking on some of my friends and seeing how they are all handling this.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>9:23 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So far she had been able to not make anyone mad. That was pretty good for her. Mikan worked at the nursing office researching different studies that had been released within the last year. She had already read three of the most respected medical journals so she considered it might be worth her time to read through alternative medicine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Knock knock*</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“C-come in”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Makoto entered the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Makoto did you trip again? W-we’ve done a vision t-test right? T-that might e-explain all the accidents you have.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Makoto held up his hands, “No, I’m fine” he rubbed the back of his head, “This time, I wasn’t sure who to spend time with in field so I used my luck.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“O-okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a pause, they looked at each other. There was another pause. Mikan could feel a rush of anxiety welling up within her.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He can’t think of anything to say because I’m hideous. He regrets being around me. He thinks I am worthless.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Tears started to run down her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mikan, did I say something? What’s wrong?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being the school nurse she knew many of her peers were in therapy. She was too. She and her therapist spent a considerable amount of time talking through her traumas while making sure she didn’t dissociate in the process. And that had been progress, it took two months of treatment to be able to close her eyes and imagine herself somewhere nice without something bad happening in her imagination.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“N-No it’s fine, I just.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s really hard for you when people don’t do anything, huh? It makes you feel like they don’t like you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The nurse sniffled and nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Makoto smiled, “Can you believe me when I tell you that even if we’re not talking, I still enjoy being around you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I’ll try.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Knock knock* The two turned their heads as the door opened and Nekomaru and Akane walked in with the latter being covered in bruises.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Not again, how many times have I told her to be more careful!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“W-what happened this time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:11 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The score currently was in Maki’s favor of 1 to 0 to 0, but that wasn’t surprising. It varied from day to day as to who got the best of the others. Peko sat there in the darkness. It was easy to take it for granted as she got to train here multiple days a week, but she was grateful for being at Hope’s Peak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The school had designed an area similar to laser tag for the three girls with different twists, turns and levels. Sometimes they had dim light to navigate through, more often the three navigated in darkness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peko tightened her grip on her foam sword she sensed a presence near her, before it seemed to subside. Miu, Chihiro and Kazuichi had been able to create weapons that mirrored their real life ones that were completely harmless.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Having simulations of the three of them ‘eliminating’ each other pushed all three girls to the limit and more often than not their days would end with the score of 0-0-0. The problem with having a game between three cats is that all of them would wait forever. Fortunately today, they went with their usual objective of having to navigate through the arena in a certain time limit or get eliminated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought about how Mukuro seemed to be in a better mood today. Perhaps it was the idea that at least she and Maki would try to help her to be able to be free from Junko. The poor girl needed all the help she could get.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She whizzed around and extended her sword only to feel a knife hit her at the same time. Red eyes stared back at her as she realized that she and Maki had eliminated each other at the same time. The lights turned on revealing that Mukuro was two feet away with a staff raised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks like I was a split second too late to join the action.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>10:37 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was nice taking a break. Sometimes it was best when he gave himself other things to think about so that his abilities could percolate. Fortunately for him Gonta had been receptive as the two boys agreed to work on their knowledge. Tsumugi, who apparently had been helping Gonta for tomorrow, joined them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi had mentioned to Gonta something about putting himself out there more before turning her attention to Yasuhiro as she agreed to quiz the two.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, Yasuhiro, true or false. Sayaka likes small animals?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He ruffled his hair while thinking for a bit. “That’s true. She likes a couple different animal items according to our handbook.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi nodded, “Very good. Probably a good thing to ask her about if you like animals too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gonta raised his hand, “Gonta is excited to ask all the girls about which animals and bugs they like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi turned to him, “Gonta, true or false. Kirumi’s favorite tea is jasmine green.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gonta put his hand to his chin. “Gonta thinks that is…..false, Gonta thinks Kirumi’s favorite tea is ginger. Gonta likes tea and would like to know other teas Kirumi likes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi smiled, “You’re doing great Gonta!” she looked at Yasuhiro “Er-not that you aren’t doing great too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yasuhiro nodded, “Nah I know you are Gonta are close, it’s fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe Friday will be a lot of fun after all.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>11:22 AM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Angie wiped her brow. Thank Atua, her hard work had been completed and she had about forty minutes before lunch so she could prepare the order in which she wanted to introduce her paintings. She smiled at the different works that she had made. She knew that by her own standards none of them were good enough, but she reminded herself that all Atua asked of her was to try her best.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took a breath. Angie knew that in terms of anxiety she was much lower in neuroticism than most of her classmates, but considering that she had to display a gallery like this once a semester it was still going to be quite the task. At least Mahiru was always friendly and she looked forward to seeing all the photos that the redhead would decide to display.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She walked through her side of the exhibit looking at different paintings she had made before stopping at the one she put front and center. She felt genuine happiness looking at the painting she made of a boy with black hair, normal teeth, and glasses.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Thursday 12: 00 pm - 6: 00 pm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>12:07 PM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was time to put to practice what he had been working on. He had really enjoyed their interactions during the game and it was important as a gentleman to continue building that relationship. Like how most bugs are able to create great things overtime, to expect only fifteen minutes to get to know someone didn’t seem like enough time for Gonta.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsumugi had encouraged him to try to talk to her more and so when Gonta saw her sit down with her friend Hina he gulped and decided it was time to go for it. With food on his tray he made his way to the two of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Gonta is nervous.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gonta apologizes if interrupting, but Gonta was wondering if he could join you for lunch.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>1:03 PM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Today was...kind of boring. Ryoma didn’t mind, golf could be quite enjoyable, but at the same time everyone had been split into twos. He waited patiently as his partner went to find her ball as it had disappeared in the woods. He looked around, it was nice being off campus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at the sky. It was a clear day, but with a few clouds. He could feel the sun on him and it felt nice. It was funny, he had been encouraged to start therapy from pretty close to when he arrived at Hope’s Peak and yet it seemed like the past few months, when Gundham had agreed to let him come to the lab whenever he wanted. That must have been when things started to get better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe the cat that he found earlier in the week was the cherry on top. Sure it was Gundham’s lab, but now there was an animal that Ryoma could at least pretend was his own. Ryoma was considering what to name the feline.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think I found it!” Hina yelled after what felt like five minutes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryoma chewed on a candy cigarette. The girl was extremely nice and energetic, but there was a reason why after pairs were randomly selected they went last. The girl had lost five balls in their first three holes. She was even worse than Tenko.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Whack* “Awww phooey! I hate when I hit trees that are so close.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryoma couldn’t help but smile. Hina was kind of like a puppy, very excitable. She wore her heart on her sleeve.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do whatever helps you feel best, Hina. It’s just a game of golf.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know that!” she huffed, “But I still want to be good at it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He enjoyed her honesty. “Don’t we all” he muttered to himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>*Whack* “Yes! Ball go to the right! To the right! Ugh it didn’t listen to me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryoma watched as the ball landed about twenty yards left from the hole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice shot Hina.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She beamed at him, “Thanks, it’s nice to get a good hit once in a while.” She looked down, “I thought it might be going in though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryoma chucked, “Yeah the ball has a way of doing that. Making you think you have a chance before pulling all the hope away from you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the two walked on Ryoma wondered if his last statement was really about golf.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had forgone a cart as both were happy being last. Hope’s Peak reserved the course for those few hours. Usually whenever paired with Hina the girl was happy to talk about anything, but today she seemed more reserved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something on your mind Hina?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! Uh, no nothing at the moment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wasn’t a good liar. But he decided it would be best to leave it alone. About two minutes passed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m worried about tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked at her with surprise, “What makes you worried about it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She grabbed her jacket and looked down “Well…….”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He moved slightly closer to her, “You don’t think it’s going to go well Friday?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean...yeah….I...don’t think I really know what to do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryoma thought for a second. Whenever he had let others get a glimpse of the fact that he wasn’t, hadn’t been?, happy almost always others would give advice or try to solve the problem. Most people were too psychologically frail to simply let him feel bad because it made them uncomfortable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When you say you don’t know what to do, what do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just feel like I’m not good at talking with boys, I’ve never had a boyfriend.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryoma did a subtle double take. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Were the boys around you blind?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded, “Well, I have had a girlfriend in the past and I feel like I have an idea what to say, but I don’t want to offer advice either. I’m happy to help though if you’d be interested.” He paused, “No pressure though, you’re really nice and I don’t want you to feel like you have to say yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hina blushed slightly, “What? Of course I’ll take your advice!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryoma nodded, “Okay, so Hina what are the things you like? What makes you feel like you’re having a good conversation?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>2:33 PM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Today was not a good day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She swung the club and the ball went instead of straight a 45 degree angle right into a tree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gosh darn it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tenko your stance is off you keep favoring your left shoulder before your swing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t need your pointers degenerate!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He motioned for her to come over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glared at him and then made her way over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey” he said softly, “You’ve been off this week. You’re using the word degenerate as if you had just started here at school.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tenko sighed, “I know and I know you’re not a degenerate.” she smiled at Nekomaru, “It’s the speed dating thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded, “You’re worried about Himiko?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, like sure some of the guys like Taka, Keebo, and Chihiro are really nice but what about Teruteru, Leon, and some of the others?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tenko,” he put his hand on her shoulder, “I know you love Himiko-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not that I-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold up my friend, hold up. I mean love her as a friend and I think it really speaks volumes as to how much you want her to be okay through this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tenko smiled and squeezed her hands in excitement, “Well yeah! I know Himiko has so much potential!” Her smile turned to a grimace, “But if she doesn’t learn how to stand up for herself I’m worried some of those guys….”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They will take advantage.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She frowned, “Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He picked his teeth, “And since you can’t be there to protect her you want something in place.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She groaned, “I need to figure out something I have been trying to talk to Himiko and after our last conversation I really tried to talk to her, but nothing worked." Her eyes lit up, “Maybe I can throw the suspicious boys then I will know their true intentions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well….it’s true you have a great ability to read people that way, however I can’t imagine the no unnecessary violence brigade will be happy with that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmmmm yeah I guess Monomi wouldn’t like that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would Himiko tell you if anyone is mean to her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course she will! That’s it, whoever Himiko tells me was mean to her I will throw, that’s necessary right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nekomaru smiled, “Well...let’s cross that bridge if we get there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>3:39 PM</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being a mechanic he wasn’t the best at appreciating art. He had made an effort to look at all of the photos Mahiru had taken and all of them were magnificent, but what does one say beyond ‘that picture looks great’. If there were certain details such as the lens, style or other factors it was beyond him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fortunately Hope always had a good budget and as he made his way to grab some food he figured he could at least check out some of the work Angie had done as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you care for some bear-ee’s?” Monokuma asked as he held up a platter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi shrugged and took some of the fruit as Monokuma held up some cookies shaped like….bears, of course. “We have polar bear flavor and brown bear flavor. I spent all last night baking these from my grandma’s secret recipe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi raised his eyebrows, “That’s uh...pretty impressive for a bear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bear?! This is my wife’s grandma’s recipe, gosh you kids never bother to learn about anyone outside of yourselves cause you’re all too busy making tik-toks and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the advantages with working with machines was that it helped Kazuichi know how to tune out unwanted noises. He grabbed some lemonade. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, Hajime should be happy about the orange juice here</span>
  </em>
  <span>. And looked back at Monokuma to see if he was done talking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And is it any wonder you all have so much anxiety?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well you’ve got me there” Kazuichi conceded hoping that what he said would placate the bear. Fortunately it worked as Monokuma turned his attention to Tsumugi and Gonta. Kazuichi took his cue and sped walked into Angie’s exhibit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If looking at Mahiru’s pictures was trying to listen to English, looking at Angie’s paintings was like trying to listen to English with someone whispering. Kazuichi wished he had a better appreciation of art. Both girls were extremely skilled and while he didn’t know Angie well he knew how much Mahiru’s work meant to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He walked from painting to painting. Some he liked though he wasn’t exactly sure why until he made his way to one of the back corners.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His jaw immediately set and his heart started to race. A flood of anxiety, surprise and anger all coalesced onto his body and the boy lost his appetite. Staring at him was a painting of him. No, not him, the version of him he had left behind a long time ago. The version of him he did not want to see. Someone weak.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What right does she have?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Almost as if on cue, the artist bobbed up right next to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There you are.” She beamed, “I was wondering when you would see this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kazuichi’s hands were clenched in fists, “Why….did you….”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Considering Angie wasn’t blind and able to see the rage emanating from his body she answered his question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was tired of seeing you hide from yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not your place to do that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at him seriously, “Do you think by masking your appearance you hide anything? If you are so keen to run from who you actually are, what makes you think you are any different than that version of yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re out of line.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But am I wrong?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was at a loss of words. His breathing continued to be shallow and he wasn’t getting anywhere with her. “Forget this.” He beelined out of there, grabbed some surprisingly delicious bear cookies and holed up in his room. Fortunately for him no one passed by him on his way there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>4:44pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was too bad that the exhibits closed at six. He loved seeing work like this. He considered the two girls to be amazing considering how they were able to convey human experience into art. Art had survived eons and communicated so much about what it was like to be human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kiyo had spent a considerable amount of time looking at Mahiru’s photos. She had such an innate ability to capture life in a single shot. He felt flattered that he and Ryoma even had made it into her exhibit. Despite their interaction she included a photo of the two boys helping the cat they saw a couple nights ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He strategically avoided going towards the food as he wasn’t interested in dealing with any bears. While Monokuma was a troll, Kiyo found him considerably more enjoyable than half of the Monokubs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He quietly made his way onto Angie’s side and quickly sought out the artist to tell her how much he enjoyed her work. He quickly excused himself after complimenting her as she had already been in a conversation with Yasuhiro who claimed that he had a vision of one of these paintings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually he stopped at a painting of a boy with black hair and glasses. It was strange this painting was quite different from the rest. Angie’s paintings usually had a spiritual element to them, but this one was quite different. He looked around and sighed, apparently the Monokubs had decided they wanted to look at the art too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monotaro and Monosuke made their way to the same painting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The read bear tilted his head, “Oh I didn’t know we were going to see Kazuichi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The yellow bear gave him a look, “Kazuichi wears a jumpsuit and has pink hair.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Monotaro put his paw to his head, “Oh I must have forgotten again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kiyo let out a breath he must have been holding as the two bears walked away. They weren’t the worst, but weren’t fun to deal with either. He looked at the painting for a while. Monotaro was usually wrong, but once in a blue moon the bear would get something right not even the detectives would notice. Could this be Kazuichi?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kiyo looked at some of the other paintings and suddenly he had an aha moment. The theme of this was the disguises people use. Angie’s paintings all in one way or another had conveyed how Atua understood what was going on through the lies people told others or themselves. It was so subtle though. If Kiyo wasn’t the ultimate anthropologist he wouldn’t have understood the multitude of symbols the girl had utilized in her art.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But if that’s the theme then…</span>
  </em>
  <span> he looked back at the painting. It had to be Kazuichi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was funny being the ultimate anthropologist Kiyo was quite familiar with the myths people tended to tell themselves. People needed to see themselves as heroes and as such would oriented their thinking accordingly. Most of his classmates saw Angie primarily as obsessed with religion or kooky, but he recognized to what extent the girl was very aware of the way people shaped their own narratives as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Angie was incredibly bright and despite being a well intentioned extremist she might have a point. Clearly as ultimates they oriented their meanings behind their talents and in a way many of them wore masks. Kiyo put his hand on his. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I think it’s time to let the world see me for exactly who I am.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>5:23 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yahoo! There she is!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru blushed as her three friends were waiting for her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We grabbed you some of Monokuma’s chocolate cookies before everyone ate them all.” Hiyoko smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki had to hand it to Hiyoko. She was right that it would be best if the three of them came later so that way Mahiru could look at Angie’s works with them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“W-we really l-liked y-your work Mahiru, but w-we didn’t want to bother you.” Mikan added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru smiled, “Thanks,” She pinched the bridge of her nose, “I’m glad it’s over. It was so nerve racking talking to the headmaster and some of the teachers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hiyoko smiled, “Yeah I was going to give you a big hug, but you were talking to the headmaster.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The four girls made their way to Angie’s side who said hi to them all cheerily before making her way to see Mahiru’s side.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Angie has so much energy, Ibuki should totally find a way to get her to make something for a concert.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki walked around looking at the different paintings. She loved the color choices Angie used and like Angie, Ibuki enjoyed bright colors. Fortunately there were plenty of those. Mikan had stopped and was looking at a painting of what appeared to be one man healing another.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“T-that doesn’t s-seem to be the best standard of c-care.” The nurse muttered to herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ibuki saw Hiyoko looking at a painting of what looked like a powerful being overpowering and squashing another.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She saw Mahiru in the corner looking at what was a rather plain painting of just a boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mahiru muttered to herself, “No….it can’t be….can it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl was super quiet, but Ibuki’s ears didn’t miss anything. Strange, she didn’t see anything particularly interesting about the painting. She moved on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>5:34 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat on the bench kicking her feet. Waiting was a pain, but at least it was for one of her friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Himiko had looked at the exhibits and they were okay. Art wasn’t really her thing, she knew that what both Angie and Mahiru had done was exceptional, but it was hard to be….wowed. Wowed was a good way to put it, nothing really seemed to be that exciting. Well, except for magic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She kicked her feet, Tenko had been with her the whole time and had to leave to train. She really enjoyed Tenko and at the same time found her to be overbearing. Angie was more relaxed, but Himiko wondered to what extent Angie cared for her. With Tenko there was no doubt.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ugh, thinking about this makes my head hurt.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well if it isn’t flat-tits!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Himiko inwardly groaned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I doubt you’ll be able to entice any man tomorrow.” The inventor continued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now now Miu, even someone like Himiko can be full of...surprises.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Himiko didn’t know which of them was worse. Maybe if she ignored them they’d go away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hah as if, I doubt the loli can do anything better than I can.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know Miu, when I look at her cute little petite figure I would assume that if I were to position-”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Enough</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you two even doing speed dating, aren’t you two already dating!!!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a brief silence and Himiko opened her eyes to see Miu eyeing Teruteru and Teruteru suddenly being very interested in his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This is awkward</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you look at the time,” The chef commented glancing at his phone, “Better get to my lab.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Teruteru wait a sec!” Miu called and followed after him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Himiko sat there watching the two leave quickly, “Ugh, such a pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>5:50 pm</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was nice to have a project that required more than an ounce of effort. While she had definitely been able to accomplish her first strike a couple days ago now was the time to make sure that her words could continue to be effective.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko made her way to the third floor as she stopped at Kirumi’s door. *Knock knock* The door opened with Kyoko standing there with a smile. Junko had not anticipated this, but maybe she should have. Kyoko had a habit of getting involved with quite a few of her plots. She saw Kirumi working further back in the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Kyoko, like, I had no idea you’d be here, I was just wondering if I could talk to Kirumi for a sec.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The detective's expression remained fixed in that small smile, “She can hear you, go right ahead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well like I think it’s something only she needs to hear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko looked back at Kirumi, “She seems content where she is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko smiled, “I mean I guess I should just accept that as a detective you’ll just have to stick your nose in other people’s business sometime.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko seemed to mull over the statement, “That’s funny, it almost seems like you’re doing the same thing to Kirumi right now. It seems strange that it is perfectly acceptable for you to insert yourself into her schedule while I am not given the same leeway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Bitch.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m just surprised as the ultimate maid she is ignoring a request.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko put her finger to her chin, “Interesting as the ultimate analyst I’m surprised you feel surprised. Are you feeling okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko recognized that her breathing had become slightly more shallow, she was not winning this chess match and she didn’t like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I am the ultimate fashionista.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko put on a big smile, “You know what I’m sure I can find a time for this later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kyoko nodded, “Whatever solution you find acceptable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko turned and walked a couple steps before Kyoko made one more comment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh and Junko, I hope you don’t take out your aggression too much on Mukuro. It’s unfortunate that she has to suffer so much because of your inability to emotionally regulate.” Kyoko started to close the door after that.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This isn’t over.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well Kirumi, it’s nice to see you finally are accepting help. I was sooooo worried about you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Junko took a deep breath and made her way to her dorm room. She was obviously frustrated as she didn’t usually throw pens against her wall, that being said she was able to get in a good barb at the end. She saw Kirumi glance at her and Kyoko’s eyes slightly widen, she knew she had hit her mark.</span>
</p>
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